Daimler and Qualcomm To Develop In-Car Tech, Wireless Charging 41
An anonymous reader writes: Car manufacturer Daimler announced a deal with mobile technology company Qualcomm to explore wireless mobile phone recharging in cars, as well as recharging electric vehicles without cables. The move is part of a push by Daimler, as well as rival carmakers BMW and Audi, to improve their status as high-tech carmakers. "It's important that we remain on the cutting edge of technology and continue to deliver unparalleled experiences to our customers," says Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development. "With this in mind, we are eager to jointly explore possible fields of future cooperation with an internationally leading tech firm like Qualcomm."
Wireless charging (Score:4, Informative)
What's to develop about wireless charging ? It already exists. You just need to mount it in a car.
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It's woefully inadequate for charging at acceptable rates. A good friend of mine drives an EV (a VW Golf) and the thing takes several hours to charge with a physical cable. The fastest level charging standard isn't even available nearby, and we have a pretty decent amount of charging stations here in MA.
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I mean a phone charger, not a wireless charger for the car itself.
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Well, the article was talking about charging the car
It was talking about both.
"Carmaker Daimler on Saturday announced a partnership with mobile technologies company Qualcomm Inc. to explore wireless recharging of mobile phones in cars as well as recharging of electric cars without cables."
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If you really want to charge quickly, you aren't going to beat a cable. Just like if you actually want fast network access, you should plug in an ethernet cable. In car wireless charging would be "good enough" if it provided enough power to use your phone as a bluetooth streaming or navigation system without draining the battery. As long as the battery is maintaining a constant charge when using the phone for normal in-car functions, it doesn't really need to be able to top off the battery quickly.
My pho
the value of not plugging in some devices (Score:1)
I can see the value of not having to manually plug in a charging cable to a device, with a puny battery of only 1 watt hour. But for an electric car, with a giant 20+ kwh battery, the inefficiency of wireless charging can waste a couple of kwh. Spend the extra 15 seconds, and physically plug in the electric car.
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What's to develop about wireless charging ? It already exists. You just need to mount it in a car.
Exactly: this [ebay.com.au] or this [ebay.com.au] for example.
On the other hand, if a wireless mobile charger is added as an optional extra, they can charge 10x retail.
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Yeah, good thing this is Star Trek and we all use one brand of phone so all of the engineering is super simple.
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It's hardly a car manufacturer's job to fix the incompatible charging standards.
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That's a nice little shift in position on the matter.
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Not at all. Just extra clarification.
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"The technology exists. It's not their job to fix the technology that is inadequate."
Your clarification is in conflict with your point, yea that is a change in position.
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Are you really so dense ?
Technology exists for various brands of phones. They can pick one, pick several, let the customer choose, or wait for better standards that support all of them at the same time.
In each case, it's just a matter of picking off-the-shelf technology and sticking it in a car, which was the point of my first post.
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So why exactly is it that they should wait until it's off-the-shelf? "It's not their job" is not an answer.
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Scale: charging your phone with 5 volts compared to a car at 120/220 volts.
Safety: that much current floating around means if a child wanders in the wrong area they are fried
Efficiency: If it is half efficient to charge our phones. No big deal its conscience makes up for the cost. But to power a car you will feel the extra cost. Besides you get a electric car because it is better for the environment and if we need to create extra coal plants to power these cars its carbon footprint gets bigger.
Reliability:
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Oh yeah? Can you attach this in your car? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
In other words ... (Score:3)
Car manufacturers are getting truly desperate trying to find new features to add to differential the models.
Wireless charging is hardly "cutting edge" when it has been used in battery toothbrushes for decades.
The only reason it is popular now, aside from with people who love any gimmick, is that everybody hates the current USB plug, and is sick of trying to plug it in backwards. Bring back the old Nokia 2mm plug PLEASE!
I really hope... (Score:4, Funny)
I really hope this leads to another wireless charging standard.
Re:I really (Obligatory XKCD) (Score:2)
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Those who say things are impossible should get out of the way of those doing it..
Curious where your calculations come from that say it can't be done with any efficiency. (I am EE).
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Current wireless charging is about 90% efficient in optimal conditions: close, well matched inductors, and no foreign metal objects.
Even 90% is a terrible waste for a car, when you can plug in a cable in just a few seconds.
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Those who say things are impossible should get out of the way of those doing it..
Curious where your calculations come from that say it can't be done with any efficiency. (I am EE).
Better yet, where are your calculations that it can be done with the same efficiency as a plug/socket arrangement?
I'e always thought the model should be the Alaskan Block heater paradigm. Pull up to the meter, plug it in. Or even the parking lot of today, with a credit card payment kiosk. Lay the cables, meter it, and charge your card automatically. It's not futuristic, but then all solutions don't need to be futuristic.
Let me know the physics - I'll understand them.
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Pull up to the meter, plug it in. Or even the parking lot of today, with a credit card payment kiosk. Lay the cables, meter it, and charge your card automatically.
This is already done at a local grocery store. Friend of mine drives an EV. It uses an app on his phone and automatically charges his card. It also lets you know how much time is remaining to finish charging, kW used, etc..
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This is already done at a local grocery store. Friend of mine drives an EV. It uses an app on his phone and automatically charges his card. It also lets you know how much time is remaining to finish charging, kW used, etc..
Excellent! I never heard of that, but I guess it shows I was thinking in the right direction. Now imagine a parking garage with a gazillion solar panels on the top level, and the cars park underneath it, kept out of the sun and rain, and charging up.
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The local parking garage also has EV charging spots. You're on a roll!
dont think i want this.... (Score:1)
what could go wrong ..wireless car charging pad with 220/440 voltage 30-60amps
snow packed cars should make this fun and interesting
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Now now, environmentalists only live where there is a temperate climate, thus have no need to consider the finer details of real world application. Those who have real world needs are just wrong or corrupt.
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Now now, environmentalists only live where there is a temperate climate, thus have no need to consider the finer details of real world application. Those who have real world needs are just wrong or corrupt.
That's rather weak.
We adapt, we don't just say "Hmm, batteries dont work well above the arctic circle, so we can't use batteries at all for anything."
Ever see what they have to do with proper internal combustion vehicles up thar? Block and battery heaters, electric access plugs at parking meters, even using small fires to heat up the big diesels (perhaps mythical) . Leave them idling 24/7, but don't forget, the hydraulic systems aren't getting warm, so be really careful.
Such a deal that there are You
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not the battery ... its the whole idea of a large wireless car chargeing pad.. .. when i park inside about 70+ lbs of snow ice falls off my car in the winter
i live in midwest
now parking on a wireless pad hooked upto 220/240/440 30-40amps
sounds like a good way to kill the whole family
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not the battery ... its the whole idea of a large wireless car chargeing pad..
i live in midwest ..
I don't disagree. I'm a firm believer in a direct hookup. I'm envisioning a umbilical that you attach when you drive up. Then when you are finished it disconnects when you hit the ignition or hwatever they call it on an EV.
The only disadvantage I can see is you won't be able to back in and charge. Which given the "backing into a space" crowd, I suspect they won't be driving EV's for a long long time.
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Qualcomm has a crappy record (Score:2)
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Until the switch to smartphones, nearly every phone on VZW was saddled with BREW (the OS) no matter what OS the manufacturer would normally put on their phones.
Also, their Snapdragon SoCs have been a huge success for them.