In the future, every single vehicle will require recharging instead of refuelling, but how will that be handled away from our charging points at home? If Hyundai gets its way, our vehicles will be intelligent enough to drive off and recharge themselves.
Vehicle recharging is a problem both vehicle manufacturers and governments need to think about. Consumers will expect to be able to recharge their cars when they go shopping or drive to work, but installing a charger in every parking bay isn't going to be feasible in all locations. As Engadget reports, that's when autonomous driving comes into play according to Hyundai.
As the concept video above demonstrates, Hyundai thinks electric vehicles should be intelligent enough to know when they need to charge and be capable of driving to a charging location without the owner being present. I don't think anyone would disagree with this idea, and in fact it really should be extended to smart parking, which will become a thing once 5G networks are fully operational.
Hyundai's system relies on both the vehicle and the infrastructure around it being intelligent. So the parking building will be covered in sensors to allow easy navigation. The charging solution will be wireless (magnetic induction) allowing for a completely autonomous process, and the whole system needs to scale to ensure a busy car park prioritizes which cars to recharge first based on how low their batteries are and how quickly the owner will return if known.
The resulting system is sure to have a few teething problems, but ultimately we're going to reach a point where having your car drive itself off and turning up later with a full battery is expected behavior. How long until that's a reality? I think we'll be experiencing it within a decade if you consider Teslas have had some of this autonomous behavior working for quite some time already.