Alexa for EV charging
Supply: Amazon
Amazon is betting that Alexa, its voice-activated digital assistant, can assist ease one in all electrical automobile drivers’ largest worries: discovering a charging station whereas on the street.
At CES on Thursday, Amazon introduced a brand new collaboration with EVGo, one of many largest U.S. charging networks, that may quickly enable Alexa to navigate EV drivers to public charging spots and pay for the service.
Alexa will draw on knowledge from EVGo’s PlugShare group to assist information EV drivers to close by charging stations. If the driving force chooses an EVGo station, Alexa will have the ability to provoke and pay for the cost with easy voice instructions. Amazon expects the brand new characteristic to be accessible later this 12 months.
“The EV charging expertise is much more fragmented than for gasoline prospects, who can just about cease at any location,” mentioned Anes Hodžić, vice chairman at Amazon’s Good Autos group.
Whereas Tesla homeowners can depend on the corporate’s proprietary “Supercharger” community, drivers of non-Tesla EVs are confronted with a mishmash of competing charging networks, chargers that is probably not nicely maintained, and apps that present incomplete — and generally outdated — info.
Not like the normal cease for gasoline, EV drivers should consider charging velocity, plug kind and cost choices, Hodžić mentioned, all whereas utilizing a number of totally different apps to search out charging stations, and as their automobile’s vary could also be dwindling.
“We wish Alexa to be helpful for purchasers of their on a regular basis lives, and EV charging is a good instance of a process that may be simplified and made extra handy by way of the facility of AI,” Hodžić mentioned.
