HERE's new service predicts where you'll find a free charging point

LAS VEGAS: When my electric car runs out of battery, will the next charging station be free? Digital mapping service HERE wants to answer this question with a new smart prediction technology.

The navigation company's prediction model, presented at the technology trade fair CES (Jan 5 -8), uses the positions of almost 90% of the worldwide publicly available charging stations and correlates the locations with sensor data from vehicles.

Together with historical data on traffic, weather updates and the current time and day of the week, it can calculate the probability that a particular charging station will be free when you need it.

The aim is to enable better route planning for drivers and help them spend less time waiting when charging on the road. In practice, drivers will be able to stop and charge earlier if they know there's likely queues at a later charging point.

The system, called Charge Point Occupancy Prediction, is innovative, according to HERE, because in addition to the available supply, the real demand of users is also taken into account, as well as variables such as weather, time and day of the week.

The prediction complements the already available HERE EV Charge Points service used by car manufacturers worldwide.