'Face ID For Your Car': The Latest Fix For Crappy EV Charging

• Revel, the New York-based charging and ride-hailing company, is introducing "Face ID for vehicles" to its charging stations.
• The tech comes courtesy of a California startup called Juice.
• It uses cameras and AI to recognize a driver's EV so they can plug in and pay seamlessly.

It’s no secret that charging an electric vehicle out in the wild can be a major headache. Drivers often need to juggle several different apps and contend with glitch-prone payment systems. Sometimes, your car will refuse to start charging for no apparent reason. It all makes recharging an EV much more unpredictable than filling up a gas tank.

Revel, the Brooklyn-based EV ride-hailing company, is not only looking to become a charging giant across the U.S. but also aiming to smooth out the experience using artificial intelligence. It’s partnering up with Juice, a California computer-vision startup that’s developed something it’s calling “Face ID for vehicles."

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How can computer vision help make charging less crappy? Here’s how Revel explained it in a press release: “Juice uses AI and computer vision to identify a user’s unique vehicle, initiate charging sessions and complete payments without needing to interact with physical payment devices, or apps.”

Basically, you can just pull into a stall and plug in. Juice recognizes your car and takes care of billing on the backend. That’s the idea, anyway. And it probably sounds pretty dreamy to any EV owner who has hit snags charging their vehicle, which is most of them.

“This partnership demonstrates how EV charging can be as seamless as unlocking your phone with your face. Only experiences that are truly this easy will help the world move to sustainable transport at scale,” said James Murfin, CEO and cofounder of Juice, in a statement.

To sign up, EV owners need to take photos of their car and add a payment method. Juice’s tech is already active at Revel’s current charging stations: three locations in New York City with a total of 54 plugs. The company plans to add the tech to future locations opening later this year, too. We’re eager to test it out for ourselves and see if it’s as seamless as advertised.

Revel and the rest of the charging industry are chasing the kind of convenient experience that Tesla has provided to its customers for years. Tesla owners can simply pull up to one of the company’s Superchargers, plug in and their car will start charging automatically. Provided they’ve added a payment method, of course.

That kind of hassle-free experience has proved elusive to non-Tesla charging networks, in part because they need to communicate with so many different types of vehicles. Tesla has a lighter lift as far as compatibility is concerned. (That is changing gradually as Tesla opens up its network to new automakers, most recently General Motors.)

Plug & Charge and Autocharge are systems that provide that Tesla-like experience to owners of other brands’ EVs. But they aren’t available for every car. On the other hand, Revel notes, Juice’s tech is brand-agnostic and doesn’t rely on any integration work from manufacturers.

Speeding up charging sessions and ironing out delays makes sense across the board. It makes life easier for everyday EV owners. It increases earning potential for rideshare drivers, like those on Revel’s EV-only platform that competes with Uber and Lyft. For a charging provider like Revel, keeping utilization high is everything.

“The less time drivers spend at a charging stall, the better it is for them, and the better it is for us,” said Paul Suhey, Revel’s COO and cofounder, in a press release. “Especially true for rideshare drivers, where every minute at the plug is time they could be on the road earning.”

Contact the author: tim.levin@insideevs.com