expecting the car to plug itself into a wall outlet / cable is asking a
bit much.
I can easily imagine a robot arm that can reach out, find and connect to some
contacts mounted somehow on the front license plate area.
That's a lot of moving parts to break, especially considering how many people
have trouble not running over things in the garage already. Plus the hazard
of people or pets or other things getting caught up in the mechanism.
This strikes me as a non-problem that keeps getting elevated into
something much bigger and more complicated than it needs to be. They try
to make it out as dangerous, and so difficult that no one can do it.
Naturally, they have a complicated and expensive "cure" for this problem...
People have been putting gas into their own cars and other ICE-powered
toys for over a century. It is a much trickier and more dangerous
operation than plugging something in to recharge it. So many people have
been injured by gasoline that we've become used to it. It's a dog bites
man story; ho hum, nothing new, let's move on.
People have been plugging EVs and other battery-powered toys in for just
as long. But have you ever heard of anyone injured doing it? I'm sure
the fearmongers would like to scare up a few cases to hype (man bites
dog). But in reality, it's extremely rare; a non-problem.
As far as making plugging things in simple... we've had easy methods for
100 years. Cordless phone, drills, ipods etc. all have stands that you
just drop it into to charge. Trains, trolleys, and buses have had
overhead wires to draw power from. Bumper cars in amusement parts even
use this method. There are already millions of industrial vehicles that
plug themselves in to recharge.
It doesn't matter if it's wireless or has a pair of contacts; it's still
trivially easy. We've had both conductive and inductive chargers for 50+
years.
I simply do not accept that we need to perpetuate the "gas pump" model
for charging EVs. This is not a problem that calls for some complicated
expensive solution.
--
We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves.
-- George Matthew Adams
--
Lee Hart's EV projects are at http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.htm
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