Boy, the right wing cranks are out in force, on this site! The negative overload on the comments rating is quite indicative of how these whack-jobs work.

What FOX is doing is cheating the American people the opportunity of hearing ALL the facts, relating to ANY subject up for discussion. The level of dis-information, scare tactics, and a severe right-wing slant does nothing but stir up the emotions and hate mongering of the crack pot, knuckle dragging, right-wing fringe.
Left-wing displeasure towards GWB does not even compare to the concerted efforts put forth by Roger Ailes and his FOX minions against Obama and the Democratic Party. And we're only ten months into this administration!
So rail on, you FOX acolytes. Better we know who you are, than not. But know this; You are more damaging to the American way of life,than any terrorist out there, because you walk among us. That anonymity is what is the most dangerous point concerning your existence. You have no desire, and or capability for that matter, of offering anything constructive in so far as our country's problems. All you want to do is whine like three year olds about how things USED to be, and wanting to go backwards. You're not in diapers any longer, so no one is willing to clean your messes(The GWB years). Grow up and help with the solutions,otherwise, shut the hell up.

I worked for the census in it's first phase as an Enumerator. This unit is a dog. It's slow; freezes often; and has been determined to be inadequate for the performance requirements for which it was designed. Purportedly, the census, having been broken down into 13 phases, it has been determined that this unit was incapable of performing all phases, as was desired. Instead it was only used for two or those phases (Enumeration and Auditing of the enumeration process), and nothing beyond. All monies supposedly expected to be saved, compared to the last census, is now wasted, and the prospective costs instead of saving money, is going to make it more expensive to the tune of about 2.2 - 3 Billion dollars. And that's the low ball figure.

Food for thought;

1) The company who received the contract is Based in Melbourne Fla.and received the contract in 2006 (Jeb Bush was Governor).
2) The Harris Corp was a large contributor to the Republican Party, and Republican candidates and causes.
3) The Republican Party has been known to be a constant antagonist to the census, and anything that may bring about and accurate
and comprehensive population figures. Draw your own conclusions as to why. Just do the math.

http://fcw.com/articles/2008/04/10/late-requirements-sank-census-handhelds.aspx
http://www.tampabay.com/news/science/article432846.ece?comments=legacy
http://www.mytwocensus.com/tag/harris/

Standardization strikes me as being an all important key to this technological transition. I would think that the charge chords should be no greater than that which could accommodate 240 volts. Any more than that seems to cause more problems than it would solve, especially when taking into account our present grid capacities. The connector heads, specifically, lend themselves to the idea of standardization, for sure.

Relative to the battery exchange idea, a couple of things. It seems to me that regardless of the type of battery arrays developed by an individual auto manufacturer, the means of connection beg standardization. The battery bay, for each car, can at least initially be built to accommodate whatever may be the largest of battery modules, as per type of car, and the additional space can be filled with a spacer, (or support mechanism) designed to augment the difference.

Given that last point; Since the "Swap" technology incorporates the idea that the battery is "analogous to the gas,rather than the tank", if car manufacturers desire different size modules for use in their cars, some sort of cost sharing deal could be worked out between them, and "Better Place", for example, whereby a supply of replacement units can be manufactured in advance for positioning at swap sites, and rotated and delivered on a regular basis, as per demand. I think, along these lines, strategically located recharging facilities might be a consideration.

One last thing. A totally robotic swap is problematic and could be solved by incorporating a human operator to oversee the robots operation. After all, we could always use more jobs, in this equation.