"Amazon Energy? Amazon Looks To Deploy Drones To Recharge Electric Cars And Other Vehicles" (AMZN)
This is approaching "Bored Elon Musk" levels of silliness. (see also below)
The amount of electricity the drones would be able to transmit is so trivial that the idea is approaching onionesqe levels. More on that tomorrow.
From CB Insights:
Amazon has patented a way for drones to provide "in-flight refuel" to
vehicles — which might help resolve the charging-infrastructure
challenge facing EVs.
As our vehicles become more automated and battery powered,
we’ll spend less time at the fuel pump and less money on gas. But even
electric cars — or bikes, or boats for that matter — can run out of
juice, and charging stations aren’t widely available yet.
UAV rendering from patentWith a newly granted patent, Amazon could use the drones from its Prime Air fleet to keep you and your Tesla from getting stranded if you cruise too far out of town.
The e-commerce giant just won approval for an invention that would
allow it to use its drone fleet to deliver energy to vehicles, both at
rest and while they move — just like fighter jets refuel large aircraft
in flight.
As electric vehicles (EVs) get cheaper, they’re growing increasingly
appealing to American consumers: US sales of EVs were up 37% in 2016
compared to the year prior, according to data from InsideEVs.
At-home charging is often touted as a benefit for EVs over gasoline
cars, but access to charging stations limits their mobility on longer
trips: even the most energy-efficient EVs on the market can only go
around 200 miles on a full charge, but the US has only around 16,000
public electric vehicle charging stations (compared to ~112,000 gas
stations, as of 2015).
Those factors converge into a problematic scenario: Sales of EVs are
accelerating so rapidly that sources like Bloomberg New Energy
Finance have warned the US will hit an “infrastructure cap” in the
mid-2030s due to a lack of charging stations.
With its new drone fuel-delivery patent, Amazon could help solve the
charging problem for EV automakers … and potentially create a highly
valuable product for the owners of the ~130,000 new EVs that hit the
road last year.
Stranded no more
Knowing that vehicle-power depletion “may result in an adverse user
experience,” Amazon patented a way to deploy its drone fleet to rescue
vehicles with draining energy reserves: US patent 9778653 details a method whereby “uncrewed autonomous vehicles,” or UAVs, can:
locate energy-deficient vehicles based on transmitted data signals
dock with energy-depleting vehicles (while stationary or while they move)
and transfer energy to re-up depleting vehicle power.
The patent envisions UAVs attaching to vehicles via a docking
mechanism comprised of various connectors. The patent illustrations show
the docking mechanism affixed to the roof of the vehicle, but the
patent says the dock could be located elsewhere (such as on a door or
trailer hitch)
As with most patents, the filing makes no mention of offering the
drone-refueling invention as a saleable product, so it’s possible that
this tech could be used exclusively inside Amazon’s logistics operation.
Yet the patent also claims a wide variety of applications for the
technology, signaling that Amazon recognizes the commercial potential
for on-demand energy delivery.
For one, the patent makes clear that the drone-refueling concept is
not limited to EVs, pointing out that UAVs could transfer many forms of
energy — including traditional fuels — to any “mobile machine that uses
energy to move from one location to another.” (In addition to cars and
trucks, the patent notes that a UAV could be used to refuel a bus,
motorcycle, boat, aircraft, or even another UAV.)
Charging electric cars, however, provides the clearest use case for the invention.
As detailed in the illustration below, the systems that manage and
monitor an EV’s energy use (and reserves) would communicate with a
server to request and receive energy. The vehicle’s system would
determine whether the amount of energy stored in its rechargeable
battery is sufficient to get the vehicle to its desired destination, and
if not, the vehicle’s technology would send up an “energy request” to a
server....MORE
