DISTRIBUTING VEHICLES IN NEED OF CHARGE TO CHARGING STATIONS BASED ON PREDICTED FUTURE DEMAND

摘要

A system for directing an electric vehicle to a charging station, the system comprising memory for storing historical data associated with past demand for ridesharing vehicles in a geographical area and locations of a plurality of charging stations in the geographical area; a communication interface for communicating with a fleet of ridesharing vehicles including a plurality of electric vehicles; at least one processor programmed to access the memory and to receive, via the communications interface, current battery-charge data for the plurality of electric vehicles, wherein the current battery-charge data is reflective of a distance that each electric vehicle can operate before recharging; identify, from the current battery-charge data, a specific electric vehicle traveling in the geographic area and in need of a charge; receive current vehicle location data for the specific electric vehicle, wherein the current vehicle location data includes global positioning system (GPS) data generated by at least one GPS component associated with the specific electric vehicle; determine, using the historical data, predicted demand for ridesharing requests in at least one area proximate to at least one of the plurality of charging stations; based on an estimated charging completion time and the predicted demand, select a charging station for the specific electric vehicle, wherein the selected charging station is other than a charging station closest to a current location of the specific electric vehicle; and direct the specific electric vehicle to the selected charging station.