Compartmentalized electric vehicle (EV) having attached compartments with separate power systems
AssigneeState Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
InventorsAaron Williams, Joseph Robert Brannan, John Donovan, Brian N. Harvey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems for power transfer and routing in a compartmentalized electric vehicle (EV) having detachable compartments, and for handing off a load from one EV to another EV for delivering the load to a destination are described herein. Each detachable compartment in the compartmentalized EV may have a separate power supply, motor, set of wheels, and/or autonomous operation features. The detachable compartments may attach to each other, such that each of the detachable compartments combine to form a compartmentalized EV that travels to a particular location.
Claims10
A compartmentalized electric vehicle (EV) having a plurality of attached compartments each configured to operate separately from other compartments, the EV comprising:
- a plurality of detachable compartments, each detachable compartment including:
- a power supply;
- a motor;
- a magnet attached to an external surface of the detachable compartment;
- an on-board computing device configured to transmit a control signal to energize the magnet;
- a set of wheels;
- and
- one or more autonomous operation features,
- wherein the plurality of detachable compartments are attached to each other via magnetic attraction from the magnets to travel to a same location,
- wherein the on-board computing device stops sending the control signal to de-energize the magnet attached to the external surface of the detachable compartment to detach from the compartmentalized EV, and
- wherein the on-board computing device is configured to determine an amount of charge remaining for powering the detachable compartment, and transfer at least some of the charge remaining for powering the detachable compartment to another detachable compartment in response to determining the amount of charge remaining for powering the detachable compartment is above a first threshold charge level, and the amount of charge remaining for powering the other detachable compartment is below a second threshold charge level.
A computer-implemented method in a compartmentalized electric vehicle (EV) for delivering loads to a plurality of final destinations, the method comprising:
- causing a compartmentalized EV, by one or more processors in the compartmentalized EV having a plurality of detachable compartments, each detachable compartment including a power supply, a motor, a magnet attached to an external surface of the detachable compartment, a set of wheels, and one or more autonomous operation features, to travel to an intermediate destination within a threshold range of a plurality of final destinations, wherein the plurality of detachable compartments are attached to each other via magnetic attraction from the magnets;
- determining an amount of charge remaining for powering a first detachable compartment;
- transferring at least some of the charge remaining for powering the first detachable compartment to a second detachable compartment in response to determining the amount of charge remaining for powering the first detachable compartment is above a first threshold charge level, and the amount of charge remaining for powering the second detachable compartment is below a second threshold charge level;
- and
- in response to arriving at the intermediate destination, causing at least one of the plurality of detachable compartments, by one or more processors in the detachable compartment, to detach from the compartmentalized EV by stopping a control signal from being sent to the magnet to de-energize the magnet attached to the external surface of the detachable compartment and to deliver a first load in the detachable compartment to a first final destination of the plurality of final destinations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.