Apple Maps has slowly started accepting the sustainable route with the addition of electric charging station listing to the app over the last couple of months. But the Cupertino giant is now adding the massive amount of charging station info from the world’s largest EV charging network, ChargePoint, to its mapping service.
This official partnership means that ChargePoint’s network of over 30,000 charging stations will now be available within Apple Maps, and will be displayed as EV charger badges. Users can then tap these badges to gain more info about the location, including pricing and active hours of operation.
But what’s even wonderful for the user experience is the fact that you can also initiate your vehicle charging, and complete payment for the same using a link in the Apple Maps application. This even includes Apple Pay integration to further ease the charging process and keep you focused on the travel. You to naturally call Apple’s super-smart virtual assistant Siri into action and hit her with the question — ‘Hey Siri, where’s the closest charging station?’ and access info.
The official statement for the partnership reads:
Right from their iPhone they can start charging, pay, and see other station details. Once they’re done charging they can navigate to their next destination. The presence of charging station badges on maps reinforces that EVs are going mainstream, with chargers popping up everywhere to make driving electric easy.
In addition, Apple has been working on the improvement of the overall Maps service to compete its arch-enemy Google — who runs its own popular mapping service with a similar name. To capture more quality and reliable mapping information, the Cupertino giant now plans to deploy drones to rapidly capture and update the maps faster. It has finally realized that drones are actually capable of covering significantly more ground than its sensor-loaded minivans. Get ready for some serious competition, Google Maps!
