In software update 2023.38, Tesla introduces a feature that is slowly beginning to manifest itself in other car manufacturers as well. Well, instead of displaying the number of available pitches at any given time, the software will attempt to estimate their availability not when the driver is looking at the map, but when the driver is at the location. The option only works in the US for now and only on the new Model S and X and Model 3 and Y, and is available in firmware 2023.38.
Predicting charging point availability. Slowly becoming a must-have feature
The feature was brought to the attention of the Whole Mars Blog on X, so it is difficult to say whether it does not by chance relate to software from the FSD beta, and therefore completely out of reach for Europeans. On the other hand: we first heard about the load estimation features in 2020, the navigation when mapping a route was supposed to take charging station occupancy into account, so we expect Tesla has been doing something similar for a long time – and is now doing it more overtly:
The feature is available in the 2023.38 update, Not a Tesla App doesn’t note that it’s tied to the FSD beta or available only in the US. A screen from the mobile app (above) says otherwise.
A similar service will be or is already appearing from other carmakers. We don’t know if this is magical thinking, but ID. Software 3.5, which we saw in the new VW ID.3, while we were driving suddenly changed our route and suggested driving to a different charger to avoid the Ionity charging station it had been directing us to from the start of the journey. It turned out that we were about to arrive at the location, meanwhile the station was completely occupied. At the site it actually turned out that there was a queue – we moved on.
The load forecasting function of the loaders is very important for cars and crucial when it comes to heavy transport. A lorry driver cannot drive arbitrarily far to the next charging station because time limits apply. Therefore, a two-way exchange of information between stations, cars and intelligent software is needed to optimise journey and stop times.
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