In response to conflicts at Supercharger stations, Tesla has announced it will be trialling virtual queuing at selected locations. The initiative aims to address the issue of queue-jumping and long waits, with the first trials expected to commence in the second quarter of this year.
The announcement follows reports of altercations between EV drivers, some of which have been shared on social media, and at least one case that turned deadly.
“Virtual queuing pilots starting in Q2 at select sites. Goal is a net customer experience improvement for the ~1% cases of a wait time.” Tesla stated in a post on X.
The company aims to improve customer experience in the small percentage of cases where waiting times occur. If the pilot programme is successful, Tesla intends to expand the system to more Superchargers later in the year.
“We also continue to expand the network 20%+ year-over-year, closely tracking site-level demand,” Tesla added.
It remains unclear whether the virtual queue system will be available to non-Tesla EV drivers from the outset, though several manufacturers, including GM, Ford, Nissan and Lucid, have already secured access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.