The way Ather monitors public charging point:
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The health of a public systems is monitored every 30 sec. It is done by receiving packets of data called “Heart beats”. So we monitor it proactively and the system triggers alarms automatically, but monitoring also has it’s limitation, i.e. if there is a power cut (very common) the system can’t tell me the difference between that and the RCCB trip due to fluctuation because in both the cases the symptom is the same. So we monitor the location for 2 hours before triggering a service request.
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You must have noticed a spike in systems being down in the last few months, that is because its the Monsoon season and the power supply in the whole city is erratic. We at Ather observed this last year too as the AtherGrid was launched in May but Ather Vehicle hit the road only by September. We learnt a lot from it the last year and took some preventive action already i.e the earth pit is washed out every Monsoon, so at our host location we are monitoring the earth pit and topping it up with brine wherever required.
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Some of the errors which occur due to the fluctuation in the power supply can be addressed in the field but for some we need to get the system back to our labs, which then can’t be replaced rapidly. But we do mark that system unavailable on the app and dashboard so that people go to alternate locations in case of need.
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We are working on increasing the density of charging stations everywhere, but it is not easy to do so, because of a really long list of problems, the most prominent among them being lack of legal parking at these locations. Most of the restaurants , cafe and stores also have street parking hence we cant access that.
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Lastly, I would like to add, that even after all this, if a person gets stuck and is totally out of charge, we do come at the earliest and solve the problem for him or her anywhere in Bangalore, at any hour of the day. But for that, the person has to reach us through the right channel, which is Customer Support.
Also would like to urge all the active users to give suggestions and inputs for the stuff that can not be monitored for example the accessibility of a location can not be monitored at all times. If we know the “Exact Problem” then it becomes very easy to solve it.
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