North American electric vehicle (EV) charging company SWTCH Energy has a new way to make charging easier and more reliable, even with a total network outage.
Named the SWTCH Tap, the new feature leverages the company’s Cortex platform and will allow drivers to start charging their EVs with a single smartphone tap, even when a cell signal is unavailable.
SWTCH uses NFC to instantly identify the charger and the driver’s account — which means they can bypass menus, app downloads, and cloud handshakes that take a lot of time. All the driver has to do is tap, wait for the one-click ‘Start’ page to appear, and the charging will start.
Interestingly, SWTCH notes that it is designed to provide a “reliable” experience across three different, distinct charging experiences:
- Full Connectivity: with both the driver’s device and the charger online, the tap will provide a faster, one-click start to charging.
- Dead Zone: If the driver is in a dead zone, the charger will recognize their SWTCH account via NFC and will authenticate the session locally.
- Total Site Outage: if there is a complete network outage, the system will use local intelligence using SWTCH Nexus edge computing or cached user IDs on the charger itself to authorize the session.
Essentially, SWTCH has developed a multi-layered fail-safe to ensure connectivity to the charger so that there is never a charging gap for drivers or a service gap for property owners.
This simplicity of connecting to an EV Charger comes at a tumultuous — yet promising — time for the EV industry. Although other companies have backed out of the EV sector almost entirely, there is an influx of Chinese EVs heading to the Canadian market and a new EV incentive for prospective buyers.
Header image credit: SWTCH
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