Clean Green Cars: Better Place thinks electric cars deserve a software-driven safety net

Better Place thinks electric cars deserve a software-driven safety net

Better Place battery swap station - click above for high res gallery

While Better Place is happy to tout their successful battery swaps, the company knows that potential electric vehicle drivers can be worried about range. Current EV drivers and advocates have all sorts of answers to this fear, but Better Place has decided that a special software solution is the way to alleviate it. Better Place’s Safety Net is part of AutOS, the company’s battery analysis software that tells the driver how many miles are left in the battery pack and how far away the nearest charging or battery swap station is. On top of the in-car information system, the information can be accessed on a mobile phone.

What’s more important, though, is that Better Place’s telematics system allows communication with the Better Place network and, as Sidney Goodman, Better Place’s vice president for automotive alliances, told the NYTimes, “If you need to switch batteries, the system will allocate a battery for you at the station so it’ll be waiting for you.”

Goodman also hinted that Better Place is working on getting more automakers on board to use the Better Place system. Since non-Better Place standards are coming to the EV world, there’s a case to be made that time in not on Better Place’s side. There are some reports that Better Place is working on making parts of the software available to more car companies.

Gallery: Better Place battery swap station