As gas prices surge, electric cars are poised to take over. But there’s a problem: The charging network isn’t ready. Go to California or New Jersey, and you’ll find more than 50 EVs on the road for every one public charging station—about one-fifth the necessary capacity.
We need to build more chargers! But we also need solutions to squeeze in chargers where they might not so easily fit.
Ziggyis a robot designed to do just that. In development by the startupEV Safe Chargesince 2019 (and not slated to ship until late 2023 or early 2024), Ziggy is basically a big battery on wheels that will plug into your car to recharge it. Ziggy will navigate parking garages and lots autonomously, so you’ll be able to book it in an app and it will pull into a numbered parking spot where it waits for you while claiming dibs on your zone. Once you arrive, Ziggy will pull out of the way so you can plug in your car.Crafted in conjunction with San Francisco-based design studio Box Clever, which handled the exterior design, branding, and some of the UX, it’s clear the robot is being developed with more intention than its refrigerator-on-wheels form may first reveal. The entire bottom—the black portion of the system—is its battery and drive train, which distributes the weight low to make Ziggy stable, even in wind. The four wheels each have their own motor, allowing the robot to pivot without making wide turns. And while Ziggy is big (its final dimensions are still being tweaked), it will be small enough to squeeze onto a path or even through a doorway.
What about when Ziggy isn’t in use? “There are other things we’re working on where it might do more to help the garage,” Recor says. “It moves and has cameras, so you can imagine there are a lot of things it can do.”
I imagine that to mean Ziggy could be enlisted as a meter maid or security robot of sorts, patrolling a garage or street autonomously. For now, however, that vision is a ways off, as the Ziggy prototype of today is still operated through a remote control. Developing the autonomous driving system will take time, and navigating parking lots alone is the sort of challenge that Waymo and Tesla have taken years to tackle, and is still not entirely solved.
“It’s not flying around at risk of hitting people. It’s not a car driving at high speed. It’s going to roll at less than walking speed,” Recor says. “It’s more like a security robot that will stop [if you get in the way].”
Ziggy is an invigorating idea. And yet the entire logistics involved in creating, launching, and distributing Ziggy is also a reminder: Even while new electric cars hold benefits over gas-powered ones, the very notion of a car is still at odds with both our environment and infrastructure. Ziggy may do a lot to alleviate the pain of driving electric, but we need to be cautious that such enticing solutions don’t simply deter us from taking a train, bus, or bike instead.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.