Robot Ziggy – the Future of Electric Vehicle Charging
The whole world is going crazy for electric cars, which are the future of the automotive industry with not yet fully unlocked potential. Over 6.5 million electric vehicles were sold worldwide last year. Electric vehicle sales are expected to reach more than 9.5 million this year. The transition from cars with an internal combustion engine is almost lightning fast.
People around the world not only buy such cars but also rent EVs while traveling. In the United Arab Emirates, where exotic car rentals are booming, electric car rentals are also thriving. In particular, many travelers prefer to rent a Tesla. This is not surprising at all, since many car rental companies offer affordable car rentals. Just go to https://evolve.ae/ to see how affordable electric car rental prices are. In addition, car rentals are famous for their first-class service.
However, if you own an electric car, then you know firsthand how terrible the infrastructure is. Arriving at the parking lot, you may find that there are few places where you can charge your vehicle. Particularly depressing is the fact that there may be cars that are fully charged, but the owner of the car is nowhere nearby. You have to waste your time waiting for the owner of another car to free parking space for charging.
An ambitious startup based in Los Angeles called EV Safe Charge says they will fix this plight soon. The solution they are ready to offer to electric car owners is a charging robot called Ziggy.
What you should know about Ziggy
This robot is a charging station on wheels. It’s equipped with cameras all around, allowing it to move freely through parking spaces at the speed you walk. Its wheels are designed to allow it to move from its charging station to your car in need of an urgent charge. It looks like a small refrigerator on wheels, which, in addition to its useful function, can display various promotional offers, as well as a parking map.
How it works
Drivers of electric cars will only need to install the application of the same name on their smartphone. For a more user-friendly experience, this app can be used by connecting your smartphone to your vehicle’s infotainment system using CarPlay or Android Auto.
By launching the application, you will see the parking lots where these robots are located. It will be able to reserve a parking space for your car. The robot will leave its charging station and park in a parking space so that no one will take it before you arrive. A navigation map will be displayed on your screen so you can quickly get to your reserved parking space.
When you arrive, the robot will move out of the parking space so that you can park. After that, it will drive close to your car so that you can connect to the charger. You just have to start charging, and then you can go about your business. As soon as your vehicle is charged, the application will inform you that the car is ready for you to drive.
Start of production
The company started developing this robot 3 years ago. Over the years, the company has worked with a design company called Box Clever, based in San Francisco, to perfect their invention to make it a friendly addition to the lives of today’s drivers. Both companies are working to ensure that the use of the robot is as simple as possible without any complications.
At the moment, the company says that they plan to begin production of these robots on a large scale as early as next year or early 2024. Now everybody can place an order for the purchase and rental of these robots.
The concept sounds quite inspiring, as this robot will be able to fundamentally improve the infrastructure for charging electric cars, as well as make life much easier for drivers.
However, at the moment there are many unanswered questions. Not all drivers behave adequately in parking lots. Many of them drive through parking lots as if they were on racetracks. Can robots suffer from such behavior of drivers? How many of these robots will be needed to meet the increased demand? Will such charging become cheaper than using classic electric car charging stations?
There is still a lot of time before production starts. That is why we will continue to look forward to answers to questions from the manufacturer’s company. For now, we can only look forward to how much the process of charging cars will change soon and the infrastructure will improve.
