CarPlay, Maps and Fueling station POIs

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seacycle

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Joined
Nov 19, 2017
Messages
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I plug my iPhone into a 2017 Chevy Bolt, in the Maps app tap Destinations and there are buttons for common POIs like restaurants, parking and charging stations.

I plug my iPhone into a 2017 e-Golf (US market), in the Maps app tap Destinations and there are buttons for common POIs like restaurants, parking and gas stations.

I’m curious if 2016 e-Golf owners see the same, or if this is a newly introduced bug in the Mk7.5 infotainment update. (I can’t find it now, but I vaguely recall reading some CarPlay docs that suggest that this bug is on the car side, not the phone side.)
 
Good catch.
You can ask Siri for the closest charging stations and that will produce a list. I have my doubts that VW will fix this, but I will ask.
 
Are you sure that the Bolt EV shows "Charging Stations" instead of "Gas Stations" on the POI page of Apple Maps? Or do find charging stations through other in-car software?

I noticed if I use Apple Maps on my iPhone and call up a similar POI page, "Gas stations" is the standard button. I called Apple about making "Charging Stations" a standard button and was told this is not a current feature. If we want this to be a feature, write a comment at www.apple.com/feedback and encourage the software developers to include it. From what both Apple and VW customer support told me, the CarPlay display in the car mirrors what is in the phone Apple Maps software, so unless Maps changes, we will continue to see a "Gas Stations" button.
 
There's some things about the eGolf that were ported over from the internal combustion side and not quite updated to reflect the different powertrain. The owners manual is the biggest one; it shows features that aren't available on North American eGolfs, like a sunroof. The owners manual also shows a manual handbrake when all eGolfs get the electric one.

VW being VW, I'm not surprised. Besides, PlugShare is a far better resource when you need to find a place to plug in.
 
Get the Plugshare app... Charge Point also has an app, as well as GreenLots, for here in the lower 48 states. These are both good resources here for me in California, it might be different in Canada.

That said, I really try to limit my charging to abused public charging stations, by charging as much as possible, if at all possible, at home, in the garage. The TDI get's taken when freeway driving is involved, the e-Golf is limited to surface streets and Blvds.
 
f1geek said:
Are you sure that the Bolt EV shows "Charging Stations" instead of "Gas Stations" on the POI page of Apple Maps? Or do find charging stations through other in-car software?

Quite sure. Here is the e-Golf:

carplay-egolf-gas-stations.jpg


And by comparison, in a Bolt EV at the same time & location:

carplay-bolt-charging.jpg


I guess the point is that after having a Bolt EV in the household for a year, I still went through a relative lot of hassle to replace my Golf TDI with a not-sold-in-my-state e-Golf (with DAP) because while the Bolt has one slam dunk advantage (60KWh liquid cooled battery), almost every other aspect of being a car, the (e-)Golf is just a nicer car. VW sweats the 1000 little details that add up to a nicer experience. This detail really sticks out and would have been a so easy to get right, from what I know about SDK for implementing the car side of CarPlay.

I do use PlugShare on the odd occasion I need to charge somewhere other than home or work, so it practically isn't much of an issue for me personally. But if VW is aiming for bringing electric to the mainstream, details like this do matter. "How and where do I charge" is probably one of the top three concerns for a new EV owner, to fumble this just seems really dumb.
 
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