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SAE and Zigbee team up to make plug-in cars charge smarter
We're no strangers to Zigbee around these parts, using the various Alliance-certified devices to monitor our power usage and let our refrigerators talk to our washing machines. Soon our cars might be able to get in on that little conversation with the Zigbee Alliance and SAE International starting to work together. SAE develops standards and certifications in the automotive industry (amongst many others) and it embracing Zigbee Smart Energy means that we should see many more auto manufacturers adopting this tech to enable their cars to talk to the grid straight through their plugs. They'll be able to do things like provide charging status updates and to pull down utility pricing information, ensuring your ride charges when rates are lowest. Many current and most upcoming electric cars can do this sort of thing, but they rely on wireless data connectivity to do so. Zigbee would eliminate that. No word on which manufacturers will jump on first, but given the pull the SAE has we think many will.
