Google Wants Its Driverless Cars To Be Wireless

Filings reveal that Google has been testing two wireless charging systems for its driverless cars.

What’s the point of having a self-driving car if you still have to get out to plug it in? That’s a good question, says Alphabet, Google’s parent company. With that in mind, it is testing wireless charging systems for its electric self-driving cars. Documents filed at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) suggest that Google is working toward cutting its robocars’ charger cables and beaming power to them instead.

The only issue I see is that normally aren't these things horrible at charging the car in a efficient way? Don't they take a lot longer and waste a lot more power since you are converting between different power methods of delivery? However like with anything else, the more people buy it the more they have to invest in the technology the better it can get.

Hopefully they still over both methods of charging, which I would assume they would need to since places are slowly starting to add charging stations, not so much gong to add wireless charging stations and that would suck having to wait that long for your car to charge when driving somewhere.

Also slightly surprised that none of these cars have solar panels on the roof to help aid in charging while driving down the road or parked somewhere.

The driverless car is just a clusterfuck waiting to happen.

viscountalpha said:

The driverless car is just a clusterfuck waiting to happen.

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yes and no. This technology will be perfect when all cars drive themselves and all fully obey all laws the same. While you have both driver and driverless cars, yes they are just asking for issues mainly due to the drivers out there.

Uh-huh Google. What is the tucking point of wireless charging if you still have to park your car. I mean a freaking roomba plugs itself, how hard would I be to do that to a car that drives itself. Jeez.

Uvaman2 said:

Uh-huh Google. What is the tucking point of wireless charging if you still have to park your car. I mean a freaking roomba plugs itself, how hard would I be to do that to a car that drives itself. Jeez.

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Tesla has a weird tenacle thing that plugs itself in. To be honest, it's kinda an interesting approach, you'd think an undermount would have been way easier. A plate you drive over, camera aligns it with target, it lifts up and attaches (opening Weatherproofing).