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Amazon Patents Drones That Recharge Electric Vehicles (cnet.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the birds-with-batteries dept.

slash.jit shared an article from Futurism: Amazon has been granted a patent for an ambitious new method of maintaining a charge in electric vehicles. The company wants to use drones to allow drivers to top up their vehicles without having to visit a charging station. Drivers would request a top up from a central server, which would dispatch a charging drone to their location. The drone would then dock with the vehicle and start transferring power, without the car ever needing to come to a stop. This solution isn't meant to administer a full charge to the car's battery, it would only supply enough power to get the driver to a charging station, which are still in somewhat limited supply.
"Amazon first applied for this patent back in June 2014," reports CNET, noting it was finally granted this month. "Like many other patents, there's no guarantee that Amazon will actually create a product based on the design. It could merely be an attempt to stop competitors from doing so."

6 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. How can this even be an innovative invention? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's two obvious components used in an obvious way previously limited only by the lack of economically viable technology to create the device.

    Too many patents being allowed nowadays are for inventions that are too obvious given other technical advances. Whether computers, or cars, or knives, or whatever, the crap that is being allowed to be patented is shameful.

    1. Re:How can this even be an innovative invention? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      yes. mobile charging stations already exist.

      you can carry them around with you to charge your devices when AC isn't available.

      trucks with large battery packs already exist to charge vehicles away from charging stations.

      extending this to a drone via patent is stupid.

      drones are the new 'do x with a y' = $$$patent$$$; just like the internet and computer has been previously.

    2. Re:How can this even be an innovative invention? by jblues · · Score: 2

      Agree, but if I were to guess I'd say the 'patented' part is around granting authorization to the charging adapter. (Cars should have a little dignity, get to know their drone first, in that regard).

      --
      If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
  2. I'm ambivalent by Presence+Eternal · · Score: 4, Funny

    The part of me that remembers topping off my plane in Top Gun approves. The part of me that remembers topping off my ship with power conduits in Starglider strongly disapproves.

  3. Describes the broken US patent system so well... by Cyberpunk+Reality · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Like many other patents, there's no guarantee that Amazon will actually create a product based on the design. It could merely be an attempt to stop competitors from doing so."

    --
    Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
  4. Wouldn’t that be seasonal behaviour, though? by Picodon · · Score: 2

    Soon to be vividly documented on Nat Geo WILD in “the secret life of drones”: Common drones are actually rather remarkable devices. These sleek, black machines are excellent and acrobatic fliers on par with falcons and hawks. Such aerial skills are on display during refueling season, when exciting docking rituals include an elaborate dance of chases, dives, and rolls. (slightly adapted from Nat Geo)