Vehicle vending machine
AssigneeCarvana, LLC
InventorsErnest C. Garcia, III, Bret Sassenberg, Benjamin E. Huston
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, methods, non-transitory processor-readable storage media, and devices of the various embodiments enable a vehicle vending machine to retrieve a vehicle from a storage location and deliver the vehicle to a delivery bay for delivery to a customer. Various embodiments may include a vehicle vending machine including a tower, a robotic carrier, a corridor extending from the tower, a plurality of delivery bays positioned along the corridor, a customer interaction kiosk, and/or a video system.
Claims9
A vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- a first delivery bay;
- a tower comprising a series of storage locations on different vertically arranged levels, wherein at least a portion of the series of storage locations are on at least one of the different vertically arranged levels of the tower that is vertically offset from the first delivery bay;
- a first robotic carrier configured to move a vehicle pallet between the tower and the first delivery bay;
- a second delivery bay;
- and
- a second robotic carrier configured to move a vehicle pallet between the tower and the second delivery bay,
- wherein the first robotic carrier and the second robotic carrier each comprise a respective delivery hitch configured to move a vehicle pallet.
A vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- a first delivery bay;
- and
- a tower comprising a series of storage locations on different vertically arranged levels, wherein at least a portion of the series of storage locations are on at least one of the different vertically arranged levels of the tower that is vertically offset from the first delivery bay;
- a vehicle preparation area;
- an exterior door providing access to the vehicle preparation area from outside the vehicle vending machine;
- and
- a tower loading door providing access to the tower from the vehicle preparation area,
- wherein the first delivery bay comprises:
- a personnel door;
- and
- a delivery bay exterior door, wherein the personnel door and the delivery bay door are separate accesses to the first delivery bay from outside the vehicle vending machine.
A method for operating a vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- receiving, via an exterior door of the tower of the vehicle vending machine, a vehicle into a vehicle preparation area of the vehicle vending machine, wherein the vehicle preparation area is separated from the tower by a loading door of the tower;
- receiving, via the loading door of the tower, the vehicle for storage in a storage location within the tower, the vehicle being positioned on a vehicle pallet;
- lifting the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet to an appropriate level of the tower with a lift-able shuttle of the tower;
- rotating the vehicle pallet to an appropriate orientation;
- placing the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet in a storage location;
- retrieving the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet from the storage location within the tower;
- navigating a robotic carrier to an appropriate one of a plurality of delivery bays of the vehicle vending machine while the robotic carrier carries the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet;
- wherein:
- the plurality of delivery bays are a first delivery bay and a second delivery bay;
- the robotic carrier is one of a first robotic carriers associated with the first delivery bay or a second robotic carrier associated with the second delivery bay according to which of the first or second delivery bays is the appropriate delivery bay.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.