I can make a better plan manually

[Harald97]

Description: A chaging station was avoided, leading to a longer, slower, and more expensive route

Type: webpage https://abetterrouteplanner.com ;app has the same issue

Link to Plan: https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=0867b0d0-fbc5-49d7-8dcb-a10649a49c51

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=1e5512ca-1933-4b66-878f-eb1c045152d4 

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=c995e15b-cdbb-4110-ad42-844ebd78bac9

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=23a15c92-00b3-45c8-8095-49f6f85f26ff

Replication Steps:

1. The first plan was made, from my home town to the listed destination and back. As you can see, it suggests several detours in order to charge on the way back
2. If I manually add the charger on the way (selecting it and adding it as a waypoint), it results in the second plan
3. I can also get the same result by preferring Allego chargers, this results in the third plan.
4. Note that the first plan also uses an Allego charger. If I click on that station, and prefer it, this results in the fourth plan, which is identical to the third (this makes sence, since both are Allego chargers, but it proves that it does not matter from which source I input the preference).

There may be reasons why ABRP picks the out-of-the-way Allego charger over the on-the-way Allego charger, but they are not made clear and apparently they do not hold if I have a preference for Allego, which is confusing.

[Sofia-ABRP]

Hi @Harald97,

Are you a premium subscriber? Premium users may use live traffic data and charger availability data when calculating plans. As such there might be a lot of traffic concentrated on the shorter plan that may cause the other route to be faster. It could also be that the on-the-way Allego charger is busier so that the planner adds a waiting time to the stop.

In general the planner will present the fastest route. But if you prefer the on-the-way Allego charger you may add it as a waypoint (like you did for the second plan) or you could choose to avoid the out-of-the-way Allego charger (find the charger on the map then choose Actions > Avoid this charger). Note that avoiding a charger will remove it from all future plans. You can manage your avoided chargers in Settings (detailed) > Battery & Chargers > Chargers to avoid.

/Sofia

[Harald97]

I don't use premium. My route is both shortest and fastest route. Also, the third+fourth plans chose my route, even while the only difference was that Allego chargers are preferred (the first plan also uses an Allego charger, so I did not add any reason not to pick it).

The point is that I cannot trust ABRP to come up with the best route for me. Why then should I use ABRP? I can use any route planner to manually plan a route to chargers.

I provided the route links. I expected that a developer would give me a good reason why it chose the out-of-the-way charger. Not speculation on why the route it chose might be the best route anyway. That's basically saying "the program chose it, so it must be the best route" instead of verifying if the route is actually the best.

It becomes even weirder (something I just tried). In Chrome, if I enter the first link in a tab, it comes up with the long route.

I then, in a new tab, enter the second link. It comes up with the short route (it is 15 minutes shorter).

If I switch to the first tab, the route is updated to the short route. This does not happen if I switch to a different tab. It does not happen if I wait a while. It only happens if I show the better route in a different tab.

[Sofia-ABRP]

Hi @Harald97,

We apologize for not being able to provide a better explanation as to why one charger was preferred over the other. If you'd like us to have a more in-depth look at the issue you are welcome to send us an email via the app/browser. Open the menu by clicking the ABRP button in the top left/right corner of the mobile/browser version and click the "Tell us what you think!" button. That way we can see your account settings and give you better feedback.

Since you first wrote to us there has been some minor updates to how the planner creates plans. When I tried the first link once again today, it presented a route which was one minute longer than the second route. The third and fourth links both presented plans that were approximately 15 min slower than the first two. 

Note that plans are recalculated each time you enter the link to account for any changes to the map/charging stations. As such the changes we made in the last update may have affected how the plan is calculated.

If you are logged in to your account, the latest plan will be saved to your account. When you are logged in to several tabs, the planner may overwrite the current plan with the plan saved to your account. Each time you re-enter a tab the page will update and fetch the settings from your account. If you are not logged in you may still experience similar behavior as the browser will recall your settings from the previous tab.

Please know that we are continuously working to improve the app and that we appreciate the input we get from users.

/Sofia