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These cables continue to surprise me, I remember prototypes for robotic “hands off” fuel pumps for petrol/gas that were being built in the 90s. With the rise of

These cables continue to surprise me, I remember prototypes for robotic “hands off” fuel pumps for petrol/gas that were being built in the 90s. With the rise of the standards around charging electric cars, it seems like a no brainer to standardise on robotics to handle the hook up as we go to higher power levels. Park car roughly in the correct place, and wait. No more issues using any cable technology that’s appropriate like coolants or the sheer cable mass in terms of copper. The robot can be built to match , and every charging port makes a nice standard looking target for vision tracking and alignment to drive the robot to the right place every time.

chris11 6y ago
That's what I was thinking. And with autopilot type systems the car could line it self up to the cable. The major downside is that this might increase vendor lock-in for recharging stations.
- TakawaraJu 6y ago
  That is where legislation could come in.
  - csunbird 6y ago
    This seems to be a great idea actually. An ISO standard cable with several tiers or power delivery ratings, mandatory for all EVs to accept should be the way to go. We have a standard gas/diesel "plugs" all over the world, why not have the same with EVs? Edit: Obviously, a car should accept only the "tiers" that it is rated for, but the charging station and the car can negotiate which "tier" that they would like to charge.
imtringued 6y ago
Why not just standardize the height of the charging port? You can then just put the plug on a movable stand. No robots needed. This is what I mean by "movable stand": https://www.slimlinewarehouse.com.au/movable-lcd-tv-stand/tvm100wht.aspx https://www.slimlinewarehouse.com.au/movable-lcd-tv-stand/tv...