Automakers Develop Robot That Charges Your EV for You

Essential?  But many things are not  

Automakers Develop Robot That Charges Your EV for You

For the EV fence-sitters who find public charging cables too heavy or confusing, Hyundai and Kia have developed a potential solution: the Automatic Charging Robot.

By Adrianna Nine March 27, 2023

As automakers and climate-focused legislators continue to push electric vehicle adoption, they’ll need all the help they can get. If the idea of using public EV charging cables gives you pause, Hyundai and Kia have developed the Automatic Charging Robot. 

Shown off online last week, Hyundai Motor Group’s ACR aims to make EV charging more convenient by doing the heavy lifting for you. The robot consists of a sleek safety pole, which sits atop a wheeled base. An arm that holds the charging cable at one point and the charging plug at another is attached to the pole. Drivers park in a designated charging spot (or tell their car to do that for them) and hit a button on the key fob that tells the ACR to initiate charging. 

ACR sends a signal that commands the car to open its charging port door. Once that’s open, the ACR wheels closer to the vehicle and uses its AI-equipped 3D camera to line up the charging plug with the port. A meter on the side of the ACR’s safety pole displays the vehicle’s current charge level. Once that meter hits 100%, the robot arm pulls back, and the ACR wheels away.  ...'