Ford patents mobile charging solution for EVs like the Mach-E — by towing them

[CyberGus]

You are probably right

Finally! Someone gets me.

I have my name on several patents, and they're all silly. So what's the point? If another company brings an infringement case, we can say "oh, well it looks like you're infringing on 237 of the patents in our portfolio, would you like to take this court, or just call it even and go away quietly? Great, thanks for playing"

 

[Ogre]

Finally! Someone gets me.

I have my name on several patents, and they're all silly. So what's the point? If another company brings an infringement case, we can say "oh, well it looks like you're infringing on 237 of the patents in our portfolio, would you like to take this court, or just call it even and go away quietly? Great, thanks for playing"

This is why patent trolls are toxic

they Don’t actually do anything so they don’t violate any patents

I wonder if I can patent patent trolling then sue the troll who trolls me for trolling.

 

[Idea Of The Day]

This is why patent trolls are toxic

they Don’t actually do anything so they don’t violate any patents

I wonder if I can patent patent trolling then sue the troll who trolls me for trolling.

I went head to head with a Patent Troll back in the 90s. He made a lot of money suing companies for violating his loosely worded patent ideas. He never even built prototypes for any of his patents. They were just concepts without plans to actually make them happen.

In my case, he patented the idea in the early 70s of a box to connect to a TV that prints the screen with coupons shown in TV commercials. He didn't specify how it would print the screen or coupons because it was pre computers, pre Internet.

When the Internet came along he claimed that his TV invention also applied to computers, printers and the Web.

So, he went after all the early web coupon sites and most of them paid him rather than pay lawyers to fight. I refused to pay, and told him I would fight without a lawyer, so I wouldn't worry about legal fees. The last thing he needed was somebody like me who didn't fear paying legal bills to fight and potentially winning, so he backed down and kept milking other companies until one of the larger ones decided to fight in court.

 

[Ogre]

So, he went after all the early web coupon sites and most of them paid him rather than pay lawyers to fight. I refused to pay, and told him I would fight without a lawyer, so I wouldn't worry about legal fees. The last thing he needed was somebody like me who didn't fear paying legal bills to fight and potentially winning, so he backed down and kept milking other companies until one of the larger ones decided to fight in court.

Unfortunately, these guys have it pretty well tuned. They ask for just enough money that it's not worth hiring a lawyer to fight.

 

[DarinCT]

I love the jokes. Though I do see a purpose for this, RVs. I can't imagine a mach-E behind an RV but imagine in the RAV EV could have been charged by towing. It would be the de facto RV car, charge at the site or charge on the road.

Another option I see is dead heading. If a Ford is rented and ends up "stranded", anything that could drag it to could get it back ready to go. Granted, that's a weird case and I can't see economic value in it though crazier things have happened.

 

[Ogre]

I love the jokes. Though I do see a purpose for this, RVs. I can't imagine a mach-E behind an RV but imagine in the RAV EV could have been charged by towing. It would be the de facto RV car, charge at the site or charge on the road.

Charging the batteries with your regen is like having a drag brake on the whole time you are driving down the highway. Why are you even bothering with an EV if you are going to burn twice as much gas driving down the highway in your RV to move around when you get there?

If you're going to tow, you'd be way better off just going with something super light weight like the arcimoto.

https://www.arcimoto.com

 

[Idea Of The Day]

Another option I see is dead heading. If a Ford is rented and ends up "stranded", anything that could drag it to could get it back ready to go.

They would need to drag it pretty far before gaining any realistic power. By then they's pass quite a few charging stations capable of a much quicker charge.

Keep in mind that unlike a regular tow, the EV would put a significant drag on the vehicle towing it, which is why they're showing a such large vehicles in the illustration. It'll be like towing a car with the brakes on.

 

[Idea Of The Day]

Charging the batteries with your regen is like having a drag brake on the whole time you are driving down the highway.

Just typed the same thing. You hit save before I did.

 

[Ogre]

Just typed the same thing. You hit save before I did.

Well it is called "Regenerative BRAKING" after all.

 

[DarinCT]

Charging the batteries with your regen is like having a drag brake on the whole time you are driving down the highway. Why are you even bothering with an EV if you are going to burn twice as much gas driving down the highway in your RV to move around when you get there?

If you're going to tow, you'd be way better off just going with something super light weight like the arcimoto.

https://www.arcimoto.com

Keep in mind that unlike a regular tow, the EV would put a significant drag on the vehicle towing it, which is why they're showing a such large vehicles in the illustration. It'll be like towing a car with the brakes on.

Regenerative braking is not the only way to charge a car, it's just the way you might happen to know. You could... I don't know... ask a question instead of popping-off. For example, is eddy-current enough to charge a car? I don't know, that's a good question.

I get the idea behind arcimoto but it's just not safe enough for me plus my family of four is not the use case.

 

[Ogre]

Regenerative braking is not the only way to charge a car

Here is a thought.

The charging system in the towed vehicle only engages when the lead vehicle is braking or going downhill. Then you are leveraging the "drag brake" effect to your benefit instead of it working against you.

This is what they are talking about doing with some trailers.

 

[FutureBoy]

Here is a thought.

The charging system in the towed vehicle only engages when the lead vehicle is braking or going downhill. Then you are leveraging the "drag brake" effect to your benefit instead of it working against you.

This is what they are talking about doing with some trailers.

Not sure who the "they" is in your last sentence.

I do want a trailer with a large battery with a possible range extension for the CT plus regenerative braking in sync with my CT. Possibly just a small trailer almost like towing a generator for business. But especially if towing a large camper. In a large camper, it would be nice if the battery could make up for the range lost during towing and maybe even extend the range to some extent.

 

[Ogre]

Not sure who the "they" is in your last sentence.

There are some trailer makers who are adding regenerative braking. I thought Airstream was one.

I do want a trailer with a large battery with a possible range extension for the CT plus regenerative braking in sync with my CT. Possibly just a small trailer almost like towing a generator for business. But especially if towing a large camper. In a large camper, it would be nice if the battery could make up for the range lost during towing and maybe even extend the range to some extent.

Yeah, the more I think about trailers, the more I feel they need to pull their own weight a bit. They wouldn't need to be full on independent EVs, but a 10-30 kWh battery for pushing on hills and regen on descents would be a massive help. Likewise if you are in an RV towing a car.

 

[Luke42]

There are some trailer makers who are adding regenerative braking. I thought Airstream was one.


Yeah, the more I think about trailers, the more I feel they need to pull their own weight a bit. They wouldn't need to be full on independent EVs, but a 10-30 kWh battery for pushing on hills and regen on descents would be a massive help. Likewise if you are in an RV towing a car.

The systems integration for trailer-based power is harder than it looks.

The natural way to do it would be to extend a CANBUS wire to the trailer, with some sort of standard to define the messages which would trigger braking xor power.

It's totally doable, but it would require a full engineering effort for both halves of the combination vehicle -- and some sort of industry group to coordinate it amongst all of the vehicle and trailer manufacturers involved.

I already put in a full workday on electronics systems integration (different domain), and the idea of starting this after dinner just makes me feel tired. It sounds like work!

 

[CyberGus]

There's tons of energy in regeneration