Rivian Will Use Your EV to Spread the Word About Bad Public Chargers

For all of Tesla's shortcomings, one thing it does undeniably well is charging. Tesla's Supercharger network is vast, outstanding to use, and incredibly dependable. Outside of that, electric car charging can be a pain. With charging stations fewer and farther between than Tesla's, and often out of order, charging with other, third-party networks can be a frustrating experience. But Rivian wants to help by using its cars to gather data about every charging station they use, to grade them for customers.

Every time a Rivian plugs into a public charging station now, it'll immediately begin sending data back to home base. From there, Rivian analyzes tons of data points, such as charge speed, ease of payment, thermal behavior, and of course, whether the damn thing even works at all. Every charging station is then given a letter grade, from "A" to "F," and that letter grade is updated every time a Rivian uses that charger.

“Surprisingly, actually, there’s multiple chargers rated F,” Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s head of software, told The Verge, who tested the new system out in public. “That was one of the ‘a ha’ moments as we went through the data.”