One of the best ways to improve engine fuel economy,
and reduce engine wear in winter is to make use of an
engine block heater. But plugging one in is a task easily
forgotten.
This idea reduces the odds of forgetting to plug the car
in.
First, on the car:
Whenever one parks at home
or in certain programmed
locations (identified with the aid of GPS), the plug for
the engine block heater is automatically extended, and
is held rigidly in a particular position (relative to the
car) until a button is manually on the holder, in which
case the plug and it's cord can be pulled out several
feet.
If power is not supplied to the plug (and neither the
'release' or 'retract' buttons are pressed), within a
minute or so an alarm sounds, to remind the user to plug
the car in. A text message might also be sent. A minute
after that, the alarm turns off, and the plug retracts, to
reduce the chance of vandalism.
Secondly, in one's home garage, there'd be a robotic
arm, with an AC outlet mounted on the end, with
enough "reach" to push the outlet over the car's plug.
Getting the outlet to go over the plug would be
accomplished partly by using a wireless locator beacon
in the plug, and partly through clever mechanical
design, so that the robot arm doesn't need super-precise
alignment.
Naturally, the robot outlet would be activated by a
wireless signal, sent out from the car when it parks in
the garage.
When one starts the engine, the robotic arm pulls the
outlet off of the car's plug, and the plug retracts into
the car.
Naturally, this same system can also be used to charge
the car's battery... but an engine block heater is at least
as important.