How is the charging station list updated on the Kona??

  • Thread starter Thread starter FloridaSun
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 16
  • Views Views 4K

FloridaSun

Well-Known Member
There is the option to look for the closest charging stations in the Kona. My SEL does NOT have the built in navigation system and I have not received any updates at all for my car.
Recently, I checked for local charging stations on the Kona and the list of charging stations included some stations that were added months after I purchased the car. How was that charging stations added to the list if the Kona does not receive OTA updates??
20200501_160555.webp
 
Last edited:
It doesn't just tell you that the charging stations exist - in some cases it can tell you if they are busy, but that seems to depend on which network the charging station is associated with. So it seems like this data must come from BlueLink.
 
The car has two options. The internal SD card and the online.

This next software update will even include online calculations for your route.

As you have the lower trim option without navigation I'm not sure how it works.

I assume as long as you have an active blue link subscription you'll get that info.
 
It doesn't just tell you that the charging stations exist - in some cases it can tell you if they are busy, but that seems to depend on which network the charging station is associated with. So it seems like this data must come from BlueLink.
Interesting.. I wonder if it could come from my android phone when it is connected to the car?? Maybe it uses my wireless internet to get that data?
 
The car has two options. The internal SD card and the online.

This next software update will even include online calculations for your route.

As you have the lower trim option without navigation I'm not sure how it works.

I assume as long as you have an active blue link subscription you'll get that info.
I have the SEL, I don't think that I have a SD port anywhere?? Even if I did, nothing has ever been done with it as I service the car myself.. It has never been back to a dealer.
 
It uses bluelink. You have an active subscription with bluelink. That's how you can remotely heat, cool and see the charging status of your car. That same internet connection is used for that information.

The only thing I don't really understand is, if you don't have navigation, what can you do with that charger information?
 
It uses bluelink. You have an active subscription with bluelink. That's how you can remotely heat, cool and see the charging status of your car. That same internet connection is used for that information.

The only thing I don't really understand is, if you don't have navigation, what can you do with that charger information?
It's pretty simple.. I use google voice: I just say:

OK Google, drive to 4202 Lakeland Hills blvd... and it automatically sends me to android auto - google maps or waze (depending on which one I use as my default) and calculates the route to the place.. Voice recognition works well, even with my German accent (which I have not lost yet after 23 years in Florida)
Anyways, I don't use the charger list from the car. I use the one from Plugshare and just tap on the address and it automatically sends the address to google maps and gives me directions to get there.. Super simple.. I just have to make sure that my phone is plugged into the usb port on the car..
 
It's pretty simple.. I use google voice: I just say:

OK Google, drive to 4202 Lakeland Hills blvd... and it automatically sends me to android auto - google maps or waze (depending on which one I use as my default) and calculates the route to the place.. Voice recognition works well, even with my German accent (which I have not lost yet after 23 years in Florida)
Anyways, I don't use the charger list from the car. I use the one from Plugshare and just tap on the address and it automatically sends the address to google maps and gives me directions to get there.. Super simple.. I just have to make sure that my phone is plugged into the usb port on the car..
Ok, that makes sense and is completely without the car (other than using the display through Android auto). I'm just curious what would happen if you would use the "navigation" in the car since it doesn't have navigation. [emoji2957]
 
A dealer tech told me that he thought that the list gets updated through the
XM radio, not the bluelink cell connection. Now I believe that, because of how
I had various things disconnected in the car. The cell modem got removed
pretty early on, and the car still had the charger list. Later, I fished a hand in
through the top panel where a speaker would have been and disconnected
the XM antenna out of the back of the a/v unit, and after that it no longer
had the charger list.

After leaving the car that way for several months and having the freebie XM
subscription expire in the meantime, I eventually plugged the XM antenna
back in just to see if the radio would still work. It did for a couple of days
but eventually got re-keyed, so all it has is the "radio ID" station and one or
two news stations about COVID that I guess they're providing for free right
now. But everything else was gone, not even in the list.

However, the charger list is back and apparently still getting updated. So
it's highly likely to be some side-channel via XM, just blasted out to any
radio that can hear the satellites. GPS is still active, so the list includes
how far away the charge points are. [I left the GPS antenna in the whole
time; the car can't *send* anything GPS related without the cell modem.]

I'm really glad I never gave the dealer and thus XM a valid email address,
as I've heard that you get mercilessly spammed if they have one. What came
in the snail-mail was voluminous enough. The horror stories about them
are legion.

_H*
 
I've never heard of any data like charging stations being transmitted over xm radio ... Traffic yes.
If it was the case I would think Sirius XM would advertise that, like they advertise traffic data etc.
 
I've never heard of any data like charging stations being transmitted over xm radio ... Traffic yes.
If it was the case I would think Sirius XM would advertise that, like they advertise traffic data etc.

List of stations is one thing. Realtime status (which ones are busy or broken) is another matter entirely. Ideally you would only get data for stations that are nearby (for some definition of nearby) and not every one in North America.
 
According to https://www.siriusxm.com/travellink/services ...

. SiriusXM Travel Link keeps you connected to the world outside the car.
. Get weather alerts, ... and electric-vehicle charging station locations.

Some corroboration from GM: https://www.gmc.com/siriusxm/satellite-radio
They also seem to provide fuel prices by location. It is interesting that the data
is still sent to an unsubscribed radio.

I agree that station *status* would be nice, but heck, Plugshare has a hard
enough time keeping that up to date, I wouldn't expect Sirius to do better.

_H*
 
List of stations is one thing. Realtime status (which ones are busy or broken) is another matter entirely. Ideally you would only get data for stations that are nearby (for some definition of nearby) and not every one in North America.

I should add that my old car got traffic data from FM radio and not from Sirius. Which had different limitations of course, but the one advantage is that the information (if available) is local to where you are and not halfway across the country.
 
Back
Top