We have a network of public charging stations here that are listed as “public - membership required”. They are associated with an app and service provider (Chargepoint) but “membership” is free - just an app to download after which users can pay by credit card using tap. Should services like this (the bulk of public chargers) really be listed as “public - pay at location”? I worry that third party users of the data will see “membership required” and assume it’s an annual fee or linked to belonging to an organization instead of a free to use app/username and password.
I ask because my car’s map provider completely ignores our entire fast charging network, saying it was labelled “private” - something Chargepoint denies. Could it be that they misinterpreted that usage type?
Who is your car map provider, Mapbox? If you can identify the car map data provider and also the specific OCM ID of an example charging location then perhaps we can have dialogue with them.
You’re free to apply the category you think is right but if you can walk up to it, plug in and start charging then clearly there is no membership required (common for tesla destination chargers and many lower power charging stations provided for free), Public also implies you don’t need to arrange anything with anyone (any private person or organisation), so for instance if patronage to an establishment is required then it’s not really public.
If the app (and payment) is mandatory then it should definitely be something other than just Public.
Perhaps we could rename “Public - Pay at Location” to just - “Public - Fee Payable”, it just doesn’t quite convey that an extra step (downloading the app) is required, something you might not be able to do when the time comes (not everyone knows how, or network could be unavailable).
The “Public - Membership Required” was indeed inspired by the many older networks that needed a keyfob and often a subscription, but it does extend to apps which require registration (and then add your card details).
It’s usually up to the end users (or the networks) to decide if the details are accurate or not though, I can’t comment on individual equipment or how operator specific charging schemes work.
If you can convince Chargepoint to provide us a data feed as open data for all their chargers (via https://openchargemap.org/site/about/datasharing) , then we could consider migrating all their locations to a new category, but otherwise we probably won’t be bulk updating anything (that would be very rare) and individuals will normally need to edit locations individually.
The network I am referring to is in the map - it is just listed as “membership required”. Hyundai’s map company https://www.mapnsoft.com/ either doesn’t draw from your database or excluded our particular charging network for some reason (I was guessing it might be because of the membership required tag but it’s only a guess).
Thanks, you’d need to contact either Hyundai or Mapnsoft. I haven’t heard of Mapnsoft before.