We can only experience fast charging of electric vehicles if there are available refilling stations. An attendant is also needed in every refilling station to ensure that charging is orderly and the vehicles are fully charged when they leave.
It seems like attendants are no longer needed in the future. Electrify America is working on a solution for autonomous electric vehicle charging. The company proposes an automated charging station just like the one introduced by Tesla years ago.
Electrify America is part of Volkswagen's court-mandated penance for Dieselgate. The charging network will finance the construction of thousands of Level 2 and Level 3 stations in cities and off of highways in phases. It will provide a wide network of charging points all over the country.
The company announced on Thursday that it is collaborating with the San Francisco-based EV fleet charging company, Stable Auto, to create automated charging solutions for future self-driving vehicles. The company plans to run the program at a pilot site in San Francisco. The location the perfect place to deploy techs for AVs.
The companies projected to operate the stations in early 2020. They plan to use the 150-kilowatt charger of Electrify America. Stable auto is in-charge of scheduling software and the underlying robotic technology that attaches the chargers to the electric vehicles. The pilot tests will be conducted as a basis to a larger-scale plan of the two companies.
A robotic arm will connect the charger to the car as it stops on the parking spot for charging. The new technology will make charging easy. Users can show up, park their cars, and walk away while the robot charges the cars.
Wayne Killen, director of infrastructure planning and business development at Electrify America, autonomous vehicles will play an important role in the future of driving, particularly with fleets, and tailored charging options for self-driving EVs will be critical to developing the effort. He added that they're excited to partner with Stable to be at the forefront of learning more and developing those charging solutions.
Tesla also explored the possibility of automated charging back in 2015. The company created its own creepy looking robotic charging arm that can detect and connect its charger to a tesla car. Tesla allows the users to open their charge ports through an app. The charger looks like a solid metal snake that came straight out of a science-fiction movie. The company, however, failed to release the charger for public use.
