Tesla recently fixed a shortcoming that has nagged Tesla drivers for years: the inability check to the status of Supercharger stations before rolling up to the charging spot. Firmware update 2.52.22 introduced “Live Status” to the Tesla’s navigation system, enabling drivers to look at the in-car map and see whether stations within driving range have open stalls.
Supercharger status visible on maps
News of this latest feature was posted on Tesla Motors Club forum, and owners quickly confirmed the finding by posting map photos showing Supercharger stations and their availability. A horizontal red status bar is displayed above each station on a map; the more stalls that are in use, the more full the bar appears.
An owner The Drive contacted about this new feature confirmed the recent addition, and noted stall availability had been accurate when he tested it. The Drive reached out to Tesla to find out if the status uses predictive, historical, or real-time information, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Live Status may help ease congestion at Tesla’s Supercharger stations
The absence of this information has been a shortcoming that perplexed owners who couldn’t understand why a company that could develop semi-autonomous vehicles, over-the-air updates, and snake-like robotic chargers couldn’t show on maps whether or not a charging station was at full capacity. Multiple threads on TMC detail complaints about long waits at Supercharger stations, and the ability to see if a station is at max capacity or has open stalls could save drivers a lot of time and frustration. It may also help fix congestion at the more popular locations. If maps show heavy occupancy, drivers may decide to route themselves to a less busy Supercharger station, or charge outside of the private network altogether.
A member of TMC pointed out that this improvement could backfire by if multiple drivers head towards the same station that shows availability at the same time. However, if that’s the case, we’re betting Tesla will eventually roll out an update to solve that problem, too.