My feedback...

[Bill N]

Hi,

I’ve emailed this in, but thought I would post here too so that others can also see my feedback and maybe add their thoughts / comments...

Hello ABRP team, I'd like to give you some feedback ...

1. There seems to be a problem when switching between different vehicles - the reference consumption doesn’t always change accordingly.

2. Please add a feature like Glympse to enable live trip sharing to allow friends/family to follow progress including charging stops. (Glympse doesn’t really work because the ETA doesn’t account for charging stops).

3. Scrolling in the settings is laggy and not “iOS smooth“

4. Please make the start SOC setting front and centre. For people who are using ABRP without a live SOC reading from the car, they need to check and enter the start SOC for every journey. Please make this setting pop up every time you press the calculate route button if you don’t have a live connection to the car set up.

5. Add other favourite address settings in addition to or instead of “work”. Lots of retired people with EVs don’t got to “work” but do make regular trips to another location.

6. The bottom bar containing the calculate route button often seems to float up on iPhone and then gets in the way - must be a bug.

7. Please clarify how adjusting the actual SOC during a journey works? In ABRP classic I had to adjust it and then tap to confirm, and then it would adjust the estimated SOC at destination. How does it worknow? Also, there is a long lag when tapping the up / down arrows to change the actual SOC.

8. Notifications don’t appear to work at all.

9. Please allow for different speed settings for highways. For example, I stick to speed limits in urban areas so use 100% in settings, but then I travel over the speed limit on quiet highways. The settings don’t allow for this.

10. Scrolling on the ‘saved plans’ pop up screen doesn’t work at all so I can’t see half of my saved plans.

11. Please allow a setting to try and route only using charger locations with a minimum of 2+ stalls.

12. Please add a button on iPhone to quckly select car / configuration - there is one on Android but not iPhone.

13. Add force touch shortcuts on iPhone for favourite destinations - also widgets in ios14.

14. Enable deletion of recent destinations

15. Show live GPS speed on map.

16. You could also include other features like speeding alerts - see Amigo app for example.

17. The UI when you tap on an address field box in the planner is confusing - it takes you to the screen with home and work and recent destinations but it’s then not obvious how to go to back to the previous screen. 

18. The settings for “fast chargers” and “avoid on route” would be better as just simple switches like the other settings, instead of pop-ups. That would also make it quicker to see what is currently set to on, and would make it easier to hopefully avoid tolls and/or highways and/or ferries instead of having to choose just one.

19. Include a list of all individual charger locations that have previously been set to “avoid this charger”.

20. When tapping alternative route button include some basic info on what the alternative routes are - eg the main road that it takes - the same way that most other sat navs would.

[Jason-ABRP]

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

1. There seems to be a problem when switching between different vehicles - the reference consumption doesn’t always change accordingly.

Interesting, I can't replicate, is this still a problem on the most recent version?

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

2. Please add a feature like Glympse to enable live trip sharing to allow friends/family to follow progress including charging stops. (Glympse doesn’t really work because the ETA doesn’t account for charging stops).

We want this too, it'll be coming at some point.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

3. Scrolling in the settings is laggy and not “iOS smooth“

Performance is a big focus for us on the next few versions, this should improve.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

4. Please make the start SOC setting front and centre. For people who are using ABRP without a live SOC reading from the car, they need to check and enter the start SOC for every journey. Please make this setting pop up every time you press the calculate route button if you don’t have a live connection to the car set up.

This seems like it would annoy me quite a lot with constant popups.  There's already two different ways to set this (main settings, waypoint setting on the trip listing), I suppose we could move the main setting to a top-level input on the main display, but that seems like it'd clutter the display somewhat.  What's the community's opinion here?

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

5. Add other favourite address settings in addition to or instead of “work”. Lots of retired people with EVs don’t got to “work” but do make regular trips to another location.

I'd also like this, it's on our to-do list (customize bookmarked locations).

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

6. The bottom bar containing the calculate route button often seems to float up on iPhone and then gets in the way - must be a bug.

Definitely, we'll get it fixed.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

7. Please clarify how adjusting the actual SOC during a journey works? In ABRP classic I had to adjust it and then tap to confirm, and then it would adjust the estimated SOC at destination. How does it worknow? Also, there is a long lag when tapping the up / down arrows to change the actual SOC.

I must confess, I can't say I've tried it much as my main focus has been on Live Data development for a little while.  But there shouldn't be a confirmation (and there didn't used to be, just setting the up/down arrow was sufficient).

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

8. Notifications don’t appear to work at all.

I've noticed this too, we're working to fix it.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

9. Please allow for different speed settings for highways. For example, I stick to speed limits in urban areas so use 100% in settings, but then I travel over the speed limit on quiet highways. The settings don’t allow for this.

This is kind of a complicated story, we're currently considering ways to improve this.  It could become a very complicated user interface to adequately define speed limits, and we don't want to overwhelm users with that kind of interface.  Our hope is to eventually calibrate to your specific driving speeds, and use that to plan from.  Of course, if you have the Live Traffic from premium we'll use the live traffic speed (assuming there is any) which should be fairly accurate.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

10. Scrolling on the ‘saved plans’ pop up screen doesn’t work at all so I can’t see half of my saved plans.

lThis seems to work fine for me on both the web and Android, where are you trying to scroll?

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

11. Please allow a setting to try and route only using charger locations with a minimum of 2+ stalls.

We avoid hard restrictions like this, as it would cause many failed plans.  We already place a planning preference on locations with multiple stalls.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

12. Please add a button on iPhone to quckly select car / configuration - there is one on Android but not iPhone.

The interface is the same between both apps, if it exists in Android it should exist in iOS.  Are you logged into the same account in both locations?

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

13. Add force touch shortcuts on iPhone for favourite destinations - also widgets in ios14.

Already on the to-do list!

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

14. Enable deletion of recent destinations

Good idea, added.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

15. Show live GPS speed on map.

Good idea, added.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

16. You could also include other features like speeding alerts - see Amigo app for example.

Perhaps, but a bit out of scope for the current form of the app.  Something for the future, I suppose.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

17. The UI when you tap on an address field box in the planner is confusing - it takes you to the screen with home and work and recent destinations but it’s then not obvious how to go to back to the previous screen. 

That's an excellent point, added to the to-do list.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

18. The settings for “fast chargers” and “avoid on route” would be better as just simple switches like the other settings, instead of pop-ups. That would also make it quicker to see what is currently set to on, and would make it easier to hopefully avoid tolls and/or highways and/or ferries instead of having to choose just one.

Good point, added.  Hopefully you shouldn't have to change your fast charger selection often.  For Avoid on Route, that's a routing engine limitation we have for now, we can only avoid one thing at a time.  We have plans to eventually improve that and add the ability to avoid more things.  No promise on timetable.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

19. Include a list of all individual charger locations that have previously been set to “avoid this charger”.

Already on the list.

3 hours ago, Bill N said:

20. When tapping alternative route button include some basic info on what the alternative routes are - eg the main road that it takes - the same way that most other sat navs would.

Good idea, added.

[Bill N]

Thanks for the quick and comprehensive response Jason!

1 . Yes, I've just checked and I'm still getting this on the latest version on iPhone. For example, I have a number of different cars saved, and if I switch to one and then switch back to my actual car (i3) the reference consumption jumps about to a seemingly random figure (ie. not 3.8 like it should be for the i3, but also not the figure that it was on for the other car I had momentarily switched - very odd).

4. Maybe there's another way to do it from a UI perspective rather than a pop up - maybe the calculate route button could show the start SOC that the planner is going to use, and if you need to change it you could touch and hold - then it brings up a numeric only keyboard so you can really quickly and easily (and safely) enter the actual SOC that you are starting with. At the moment, you have to go into full settings or origin waypoint setting, tap on the current SOC setting, delete the current figures, then type in the new figures on a Qwerty keyboard, then tap done, then calculate. 

As an aside - it would be good if all fields throughout the app where only numbers need to be entered could bring up a numeric keyboard instead of the Qwerty keyboard.

7. It does seem as though no confirmation is needed - but maybe there is something in the UI that can be improved so that the user gets some sort of confirmation that the change has been made - eg a display saying something like "Your estimated SOC at [name of destination] is now x%"

10. In the iPhone app - I have just double checked and it definitely won't scroll. I can only move the slide-up page up and down the screen, or tap into one of the saved plans, but I can't scroll down (or up) the list. So I have one saved plan at the bottom of the page where the name is cut in half. I think it's connected with the #6 problem - so probably iPhone specific.

11. I emailed about this separately before and Bo had suggested maybe an (advanced) option for the user to optionally say how important the preference for locations with more stalls should be. The problem is, here in the UK at least, many locations still only have a single stall and they often just can't be relied on if you wan't a stress-free trip. So, as it is, I find myself using ABRP in a clunky manner, manually checking the number of stalls at each location and then adding the preferred chargers as waypoints. 

Just on #3 - I agree this should definitely be the focus at the moment - I tried the classic version the other day and since then I've found myself going back to it quite often because it's just so snappy in comparison - but, alas, you then can't take advantage of the life traffic & weather features.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Bill N
expanded on #4

[BarryH]

on nr 4:

I would suggest a standard that can be set (if life data is older then ~3hrs, use standard% defined by user [takes care of the unmonitored charging at home, etc)

Not a setting that is on the front screen. For a laptop/tablet it would work, but on phones everything becomes too small

[Bill N]

On #10 at least - my bad - I was unwittingly using a web bookmark on my home screen rather than the actual iPhone app. Using the app, scrolling the saved plans screen does work (albeit not particularly smoothly).

[Bill N]

A new one...

#21 - the time entry in waypoint setting for departure time is clunky - requires user to type a colon and it isn’t possible to scroll down the list of suggested times.

i would suggest (if possible) to only display a numeric keyboard and eliminate the need for a colon to be typed - so the user can just quickly tap in 4 digits to get any specific time and the colon is added automatically by the set formatting.

[Bill N]

#22 When the settings screen is set to simple mode, and user taps on departure SOC to change the value, the settings page doesn’t always slide up so then the keyboard ends up blocking the user from seeing what is being typed.  Sometimes it is okay, but more often than not it isn’t.

 

[Abu Dhabi Dude]

Just a few observations from me. Point 1, I have seen the same behaviour. It’s intermittent but I have had that happen to me too (incorrect consumption on change of vehicle).

On all the points about laggy scrolling, it’s silky smooth on an iPhone 11Pro, so I’d guess it’s possibly down to processor speed (or maybe other apps running in the background)?

On point 9 (setting different speed limits): I fully understand why he feels this way, and I can see why someone might want it. But I find the current system simple and user friendly. It could get quite cumbersome otherwise. One possibility might be a toggle switch for “Advanced Speed Setting/Simple Speed Settings” much as you’ve done with the settings? Simple allows the current system to remain, advanced goes to a menu with road limits for each individual speed limit? But I think that would be tough to design and could end up being very confusing. I like the current version a lot.

[Bill N]

Yep, lagginess could in part be due to me being on an iPhone 7+ that also could probably do with a factory reset - although other apps are performing okay, and ABRP Classic is snappy and smooth. I am going to get around to a factory reset and fresh install and see if that improves it.

I like the idea of 'simple' and 'advanced' settings, and think this could be used to allow for more 'involved' users to tinker with more settings, whilst other users don’t need to bother. I still think it’s probably a little way until the type of people a) driving EVs and b) knowing about using ABRP are not in the main quite nerdy and not put off by 'advanced’ settings. I can however see why ABRP is aiming to make using the software more simple and hands-off, and the time will come when EVs start reaching mass adoption and mostly 'normal' (!) people drive them, and ABRP will maybe by then be baked into cars. 

The idea about limiting charging stops to location with more that x stalls could be another thing that is 'hidden' in advanced settings, so most users don’t mess with it and then end up with “no route found”.

 

[BarryH]

@Bill NI use a iPhone SE and that works fine. also a cheap android phone (eur 100,- 1 yr ago with android 8.0) works fine