Meet CARL, Your Autonomous Car Charging Robot Butler

Shanghai-based mobility provider AIWAYS has been granted seven patents across Europe and China for the development of an autonomous charging robot dubbed CARL.

The patents include both the design of the robot as well as the fast-charging method. Once ready, you’ll be able to summon CARL via a smartphone app, and the robot will find the car all by itself, before plugging in automatically. You won’t even need to be there.

The best part is that CARL will be able to provide a fast charge to any electric vehicle “with a recognized charging standard”, which basically means that you don’t necessarily need to own an AIWAYS U5 crossover in order to use this new technology.

Read Also: AIWAYS U6ion Electric Concept Debuts As Thinly-Disguised Production Crossover Coupe

With its 30 kWh and 60kWh capacities, CARL will recharge your battery to 80% in under 50 minutes, which should come in handy to both private and corporate consumers, as well as infrastructure developers and operators.

“Instead of drivers trying to find a charger, the charger will find them,” said AIWAYS VP for overseas operations, Alex Klose. “We want to make EV ownership as simple, easy and enjoyable as possible, and CARL provides a blueprint for how EVs can be charged in the future.”

The way it finds your car is through GPS data, as long as you’re in the same area in which it operates. Afterwards, it will plug itself in and begin to charge your car automatically. Once that process is complete, CARL will either continue to the next user or return to its base station.