Apple patent application reveals autonomous vehicles that can recharge each other

“Apple has filed for yet another patent (number 20190049996) involving an autonomous vehicle,” Dennis Sellers reports for Apple World Today. “Dubbed ‘peloton’ (a group or pack of vehicles) it involves at least two self-driving vehicles traveling together. As with a previous patent filing (number 10,108,202) it would allow one car to charge another even if both are moving.”
“Apple says that, in some cases, a navigation range of a vehicle from a given location is at least partially restricted by the internal energy storage of the vehicle, which can include fuel, electrical power, etc., which are consumed by one or more engines included in the vehicle to cause the vehicle to move,” Sellers reports. “While a vehicle can stop at a refueling station, recharging station, etc. [if one is available along the route] to replenish internal stored energy to extend the navigation range of the vehicle, such stops can extend the duration of a trip.”
Sellers reports, “This is why Apple thinks it would be great if one car could recharge another… ‘The vehicle can include a power management system which enables the vehicle to be electrically coupled to a battery included in another vehicle in the peloton, so that driving range differences between the vehicles can be reduced via load sharing via the electrical connection. The vehicle can include a power connector arm which extends a power connector to couple with an interface of another vehicle.'”
Read more in the full article here.
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