On Wednesday, 20-year-old Anu Kumar’s e-rickshaw stopped in the middle of the road in front of Bangla Sahib Gurdwara. He tried to turn it on several times, but to no avail. A long line of angry drivers kept honking behind him.
By the time a couple of kind strangers helped him push the e-rickshaw onto the road, his passengers had left, and without paying. “No one will pay if you drop them off before their destination,” he said.
Kumar took the e-rickshaw to a mechanic, fearing how much he would have to shell out to get it fixed.
But the mechanic simply opened an app, tapped the screen and, to his relief, the vehicle came back to life.
But the relief was short-lived. His rickshaw stopped in the same way three more times that same day. It also closed three times on Thursday. “I went home. What can you do when your vehicle stops three times a day?” Kumar is not alone.
For the past three days, e-rickshaw drivers in the capital have found themselves at the mercy of strangers who use Bluetooth-enabled mobile apps to connect to their vehicles’ battery management systems (BMS) and shut them down remotely, stopping their vehicle in the middle of the road.
The Union government on Friday ordered Apple and Google to remove at least three battery management apps (BAT-BMS, Lossigy and Epoch Li-ion) from their app stores following reports that they were being misused.
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Meanwhile, drivers are severely harassed. “I normally earn Rs 1,000 a day. After paying for charging and maintenance, I have about Rs 800 left.
But for the last two days, I have earned only Rs 600-700 because my vehicle was stopped four times a day,” said Mukhiya Yadav (24), who works between Chuna Mandi and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
“While some people were demanding Rs 200 to restart the vehicle, yesterday one person even asked me for a beer,” he added.
On Friday, Yadav had downloaded the BAT-BMS app himself and was helping stranded drivers restart their e-rickshaws.
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The BAT-BMS app was originally developed by Shenzhen Grenergy Technology of China as a legitimate battery management tool for Bluetooth-enabled lithium-ion batteries. It allows users to monitor the state of charge, voltage, current, temperature, charge cycles and general health of a battery. The app can connect wirelessly to batteries via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) within an operating range of approximately 15m.
However, the main concern lies in the security configuration of some BMS used in low-cost electric vehicles. A BMS is the electronic controller that monitors and protects lithium-ion battery packs by regulating the charge, discharge, temperature and balance of the cells. The apps in question could connect to the BMS within a limited range and be used to cut battery power, suddenly stopping the vehicle.
“This is a matter of safety and to ensure that people do not suffer inconvenience or distress, the government will certainly take appropriate measures… The Transport department is also investigating and checking the matter,” Delhi Transport Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh said, adding that the Delhi Police was carrying out an investigation into the matter.
Kishori Kumar Jha (55), who drives it in Ramesh Nagar, west Delhi, said: “People in cars and small children have been
worrying continuously for the last two days. After my e-rickshaw stopped yesterday, someone approached me and asked me for 500 rupees to restart it. “This is extortion.”
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Rajiv Tuli, general secretary of the Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Society (EVMS), said the complaints started coming in from Wednesday.
“We started receiving complaints from drivers across Delhi the day before yesterday. Manufacturing companies have created helplines where stranded drivers can call and get assistance on how to restart their vehicle. Manufacturing companies have also created their own apps which drivers can now use,” he said.