Volkswagen has just teased an innovative way for electic vehicle owners to keep their motors charged at all times; via a handy EV-Charging robot that borrows quite a bit from Star Wars’ R2-D2.
The trashcan-sized robot will move around parking lots and charge electric vehicles all on its own. While the prototype was first teased last year, this marks the first time we have seen the product in the flesh (and not much has changed).
The news was released via a 45-second video of the robot, and provides a decent view of what it will actually look like. You get a sleek box-shaped design, with a glossy surface. More importantly, it comes with its own articulating arm, blinking digital eyes and R2-D2-esquire whistle and beep noises.
In the demonstration video, you can see the robot in action as it pulls up to electric vehicles and slots battery chargers in them. Then the robot returns either to its home base or finds another electric vehicle that requires charging.
Volkswagen is calling the robot an all-new ‘Car-to-X’ or ‘V2X vehicle-to-everything’ concept.
The idea seems sound: it would allow regular car parks (not ones that have been retrofitted with EV facilities) to facilitate the charging of electric vehicles.
As of right now, we don’t know when Volkswagen might unleash its R2-D2 charging robots on the world, however the automaker did say that the project had “successfully reached prototype status and will now be comprehensively further developed.”
