Saturday 24 May 2014

Google Glass for charging stations in US



Ecomento.com: One of the largest electric car charging station providers has developed a Google Glass app to help owners locate available charge points.

SemaConnect, which has more than 300 stations on its books in North America, says the app will help Google Glass wearers locate the closest charge points within a 20-mile radius before providing turn-by-turn navigation. Users will even be able to initiate and terminate charging sessions hands-free meaning that physically plugging the car in is the only dirty-work required.

‘SemaConnect for Glass’ was submitted for review this month, and once approved will be available to download from the MyGlass app for Android and Apple app store.

While most electric cars can now quickly and easily locate and direct the driver to nearby stations via the infotainment system, SemaConnect’s app promises to make the process easier, without the need to operate click-wheels or touchscreen displays while driving.

SemaConnect also partnered with electric car software provider Recargo last year, meaning that users of the app will also benefit from the latter’s‘Pay with Plugshare’ program. Similar to Paypal, Pay with Plugshare requires only that the driver enter a credit card number into a smartphone app, negating the need for different membership cards for different charge station operators.

There is a catch, however, which is that the app will only locate SemaConnect ChargePro charging stations. These stations make up just a fraction of the thousands of public charging stations in the US, although California is unsurprisingly well catered for.