Electrify America, and Stable Auto collaborate and is currently working on a pilot charging station located in San Francisco that will utilize robots to charge self-driving electric vehicles. The concept is the as that of tesla, but most likely it is not vaporware. The collaboration aims to provide convenience and introduce groundbreaking technology to owners of self-driving electric vehicles.
Since it was introduced in the market, the charging points of electric vehicles began popping out in various corners of the world. However, there is an issue in regards to the autonomous electric vehicle since most of these charging ports are not compatible. After all, no one is there to connect the charger into the vehicle.
Over time, self-driving and electric vehicles embrace new technological advancements. But, one basic question remains unanswered; how will self-driving electric vehicles connect to charging stations? Interestingly, Electrify America, and Stable Autos appear to have already developed a solution to this problem.
On Thursday, Electrify America announced that has entered into an agreement with Stable Auto it is currently developing a solution. Stable Auto is a San Francisco-based company that offers electric vehicle fleet charging and develops automated charging solutions for self-driving electric vehicles. The current work will be a pilot program located in the downtown area of San Francisco, an ideal location to deploy technology for self-driving and autonomous vehicles.
The program is developing robotic charging stations intended for self-driving electric vehicles. This autonomous charging station will enable self-driving electric vehicles to easily connect to Electrify America's 150 kW direct current fast chargers without the need for any human intervention. The cars can park themselves in the standard parking area, and the robots of Stable Auto will hook them up to the power source.
According to the director of infrastructure planning of Electrify America Wayne Killen, self-driving vehicles will have a significant role in the future of driving especially with fleets and customized charging options for self-driving electric vehicles will play a crucial role to its development. The current program will enable companies to test the hardware and back-end solutions for possible business models. If everything works as expected, the project will be ready in the early part of 2020.
Stable Auto and Electrify America are not the first companies to toy with the concept of automated charging. Tesla created a creepy robotic charging arm in 2015 that can find and connect chargers to a Tesla car.
