People don't like to wait for anything — and if they must wait, they want to be entertained.
That's why gas stations have installed those gas-pump screens, which show lifestyle-tip videos and others designed to fill the couple of minutes it takes to fill your tank.
Filling up a gas tank is a pretty quick process. Charging an electric vehicle, even a Tesla (TSLA) -) using a Supercharger, takes time, something the company is very clear about.
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"Superchargers are the fastest charging option when you’re away from home, allowing you to charge your vehicle up to 200 miles in 15 minutes," the company shared on its website.
That's the best-case scenario for a charge that for most EVs is between less than half and two-thirds of the vehicles' range. Filling a tank with gas, even a large one, takes much less time, and that's a problem for the EV industry.
Fifteen minutes or more charging a vehicle makes long trips longer. Even at rest stops with bathrooms and snacks, people can often meet all their other needs while their vehicle continues to charge.
Walt Disney (DIS) -) actually has a solution for Tesla and the EV industry that could turn charging from a chore to a form of entertainment,
Image source: Getty Images.
Disney wants to solve the waiting game
As Homer Simpson once said, "the waiting game sucks, let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippos."
A new Walt Disney patent shows that the Mouse House wants to create an entertainment system that makes waiting for everything from picking up groceries to charging your EV a better experience.
Disney detailed the limitations of current vehicle entertainment systems in its patent filing.
"Onboard computing and infotainment capabilities of vehicles have become increasingly sophisticated. Yet the content presented by such systems remains limited to in-dash or other internal screens and audio systems which necessarily limit the immersiveness of the experience," the company wrote.
"For example, while an in-vehicle infotainment system may play a movie, an occupant need only look out the window and see the real-world outside of the movie breaking the immersion in the media."
That creates a problem and an opportunity, according to Disney.
"Further exacerbating the problem, electric vehicles may need long periods of nondriving time to charge. During such times, occupants may find themselves
in their vehicles, not driving, and with little to do while the vehicle charges," Disney wrote.
That problem isn't unique to EVs Disney points out, and the company sees a market that its unique entertainment brand can fill.
"Currently, there is no way to provide immersive entertainment to the occupants of the vehicle during such periods of nondriving time. Improved methods and systems of providing content to vehicle occupants are needed," Disney added.
Here's how Disney wants to solve EV waiting
Disney wants to create what it describes as an immersive entertainment pod into which people can drive their vehicles. Disney provides a lot of examples via illustration and explains its broader idea this way.
'In one embodiment, the entertainment system includes a display external to the vehicle and viewable by an occupant of the vehicle. The entertainment system includes a communication module to receive occupant preferences from an occupant, and a processor configured to generate or modify content to be presented on the display based on the occupant preferences," the company wrote in the patent abstract.
In the drawings, the pod looks a lot like a rounded garage. That pod, according to the filing, could include vehicle charging, and it would allow for immersive experiences. That would include "driving" around environments, with a safari given as an example.
Disney files patents regularly, and this one does not mean the company will actually build the system it files a patent on. The company does offer traditional charging stations at many of its parking lots and at some of its hotels.
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