How would you feel when you are on the way to your workplace and suddenly your electric car runs out of charge or runs low on a charge which might make it difficult for you to reach your destination? You would definitely feel worried and stressed out! This may also happen when you are in a rush to attend some urgent events. But worry no more as Ford with its latest patent that aims to solve all your problems related to charging your electric or hybrid vehicles.

Ford has come up with a jump start drone, that can plug into the vehicle which is still in motion to pass the much needed electric charge. The main components which make this process possible are the vehicle, the jump start drone, the drone transport system and a remote server computer or a cloud server.

When the vehicle which can be a passenger or a commercial vehicle, upon detecting a low battery, transmits a charge request that includes the location of the vehicle and the destination of the vehicle. The charge request is then transmitted to and received by the remote server computer which determines a jump start drone out of a fleet of jump start drones. Further, the remote server computer transmits the charge request to the selected jump drone and the drone transport system. After, the remote transport system will relay a rendezvous location for the vehicle.

The vehicle may include a vehicle computer system that will give instructions to the driver of the vehicle regarding the rendezvous location. Further, the vehicle computer system may also be programmed to receive a beacon request from the aerial drone via the respective communications network. The jump start drone will also send a landing communication message to the vehicle computer system for the driver to know that the drone has landed successfully. After which the vehicle computer system will actuate a charger to receive an electric charge from the jump start drone on its charging pad. Further, the jump start drone even optimizes the charge transfer by wiping off the corrosion from the electrodes of the vehicle charge source.

In a march towards sustainable development, the jump start drone system may prove to be a quantum leap in the automotive sector in the times when demand for electric and hybrid vehicles is increasing. Gone are the stressful moments of running low on charge, thanks to the jump drone system.

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