New app to assist drivers of electric vehicles
A new app has been developed by Southampton researchers to enable drivers to optimise their journey around charging networks and make personalised decisions about journey cost versus journey time. The app offers multiple routes, providing details on charging facilities, cost and time. An AI algorithm then learns drivers’ preferences to optimise future results enabling EV drivers to make the most efficient use of the charging network, reducing the need for more EV charging stations and hopefully increasing the up-take of EVs to benefit our net zero journey.
Professor Sebastian Stein, lead researcher of the project and Turing AI Fellow was interviewed on BBC Radio Solent and for a Southern Daily Echo article on his work to develop an app to make driving electric easier for people. As part of the study a large-scale survey of 1,278 EV drivers with experience of charging on long journeys was conductted between 19 April and 5 May 2022, using online surveys and in-person interviews that were carried out at rapid charging stations in Cobham, Fleet and Winchester, as well as at the Fully Charged LIVE event in Farnborough.