There's nothing worse than planning a trip and laying out a route with all the charging points selected, only to find that one of the chargers isn't working. The Rivian company has taken up the solution of this problem.
As part of its latest software update, the electric start-up has integrated a newly created ranking of charging stations into its cars. It uses data collected from its customers' vehicles to rate charging stations. Stations are rated based on things like network uptime, successful charging sessions and maximum charger performance.
From this, Rivian aggregates the data and assigns each station a letter grade, just as a teacher might assign a student. The best charging stations get an A grade, and the worst get an F. Unfortunately, there are more stations in the latter category than the automaker's head of software, Wassim Bensaid, expected.
“Surprisingly, there are actually quite a few F-rated chargers”– said Bensaid.
Rivian has been collecting data for over a year to be able to launch the product with sufficient accuracy. However, Bensaid admits that because the automaker has only produced 100,000 vehicles to date, it cannot give a complete picture of charging stations in the US and Canada.
In any case, he can't yet. Bensaid says each charging session helps provide more data, making the information more reliable. Rivian is also working on a customer rating system that will allow them to provide their own feedback on the charging experience to account for things the vehicle can't detect.
Offering a charging station rating system could be very helpful for Rivian owners, as EV drivers often complain that America's charging infrastructure needs some work. In 2023, JD Power reported that satisfaction with charging stations was the lowest since data collection began due to slow charging speeds.