Toronto, Ontario — Rivian has announced that its vehicles will begin collecting electric vehicle (EV) charging station data every time one of its vehicles is plugged into a public charging unit.
While the automaker has been collecting data along these lines for over a year, Rivian has announced plans to increase the data collecting process so that every time a Rivian vehicle is plugged into a public charging network, it will begin sending charging station data back to the automaker. From here, Rivian will analyze the data collected to determine the quality of the charger.
Specifically, the automaker will look at data related to the charge speed of the station, the time it takes to process driver payments, thermal behaviour and the overall functionality of the station. The charging station will then be given a letter grade that will update as more and more vehicles collect data from each charging point.
Rivian originally told The Verge that “our North Star is charging, and trip planning in EVs should just work.”
Notably, Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s head of software commented that “you should not (have to) think about (the quality of the EV charger).”
Bensaid further told The Verge that “surprisingly, actually, there’s multiple chargers rated F. That was one of the ‘aha’ moments as we went through the data.”
In the future, Rivian also plans to add a customer feedback system so that drivers can more directly rate charging stations themselves.
