Autonomous EV Charger Would Seek You Out

Auto manufacturer Aiway wants to simplify the process of refueling your electric car – the Shanghai developer has released “CARL”, an autonomous EV charger.

The idea is that “Instead of drivers trying to find a charger, the charger will find them,” said Alex Klose, Vice President for Overseas Operations at Aiways.

EV drivers would summon CARL with an app, and as long as their vehicle is compatible with the robot’s 30kwh or 60kwh capacities, it’ll start recharging. And according to the company, CARL should work relatively quickly – recharging to 80% in under 50 minutes.

After this, CARL would return to home base to recharge itself or go to its next customer.

This assumes, of course, that CARL functions properly, and according to early reports, it’s been anything but reliable. CNET claims that stations regularly go down, and neither the payment system nor CARL, itself, is all that reliable.

Still, the entire CARL concept could just be a test run, as future EV chargers will probably be at least somewhat mobile (and autonomous).

Read more here.