Compartmentalized Electric Vehicle (EV) Having Attached Compartments with Separate Power Systems
AssigneeState Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
InventorsAaron Williams, Joseph Robert Brannan, John R. 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.
Claims19
A compartmentalized electric vehicle (EV) having a plurality of attached compartments each configured to operate separately from other compartments for delivering loads to a plurality of final destinations by transferring charge across the compartments, the compartmentalized EV comprising:
- a plurality of detachable compartments, each detachable compartment including:
- a power supply;
- an on-board computing device;
- and
- one or more autonomous operation features,
- 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) having a plurality of attached compartments each configured to operate separately from other compartments for delivering loads to a plurality of final destinations by transferring charge across the compartments, the computer-implemented 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 and one or more autonomous operation features, to travel to an intermediate destination within a threshold range of a plurality of final destinations;
- 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 to deliver a first load in the detachable compartment to a first final destination of the plurality of final destinations.
A non-transitory computer-readable memory storing instructions thereon for delivering loads to a plurality of final destinations using a compartmentalized electric vehicle (EV) having a plurality of attached compartments each configured to operate separately from other compartments by transferring charge across the compartments to power the compartments, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- cause a compartmentalized electric vehicle (EV) having a plurality of detachable compartments to travel to an intermediate destination within a threshold range of a plurality of final destinations, wherein each detachable compartment includes a power supply and one or more autonomous operation features;
- determine an amount of charge remaining for powering a first detachable compartment;
- transfer 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, cause at least one of the plurality of detachable compartments to detach from the compartmentalized EV 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.