Video of the Week: Tesla previews ‘solid metal snake’ robot charger

Amid headlines about Telsa’s downgraded delivery outlook causing its stock to have the worst day in nearly two years, the Californian prestige electric vehicle maker and smasher of cleantech boundaries quietly released a video of a prototype of its robotic car charger in action, slinkily finding its own way to a Model S socket and plugging in.

The video, which you must watch, below, was posted to Instagram on the same day that Tesla warned of fewer car deliveries for the year, sending its stock on a 13 per cent slide.

It follows up on a Tweet, last December, from the electric car maker’s billionaire founder and chief boundary smasher, Elon Musk, advising that they were working on a charger “that automatically moves out from the wall and connects like a solid metal snake. For realz.”

The robo-charger is currently in testing and finer details are few, but Tesla says it could work with every Model S on the road. As the Washington Post notes, “it helps that the Model S has a charge-port door that opens automatically when it senses a nearby charging nozzle, using the same technology that pushes the car’s door handles out when the driver approaches with the keys.”

For realz.

Charger prototype finding its way to Model S. #Tesla #cars #charging

A video posted by Tesla Motors (@teslamotors) on

Comments

12 responses to “Video of the Week: Tesla previews ‘solid metal snake’ robot charger”

  1. solarsal Avatar
    solarsal

    This is how baby Teslas are born.

    1. News Views Avatar
      News Views

      bahahaha – clever !

  2. Petra Liverani Avatar
    Petra Liverani

    It’s very cute but I wonder why they’ve put a focus on it. It seems very little effort to attach the charger manually and generally I would’ve thought drivers are going to exit the car while they charge. Is it perhaps for very cold or otherwise unpleasant weather where you don’t want to exit to charge or some other reason or simply because the technology isn’t ultimately so complicated and they thought it would be a nice gimmick.

    1. Bob_Wallace Avatar
      Bob_Wallace

      Here’s how it plays out. You drive up to a Supercharger, your car has told you that a bay will be available soon.

      You park, get out, go eat/shop/take a walk. Bay opens. Your car drives itself in. ChargeSnake hooks up.

      Charing finished, ChargeSnake detaches, your car drives itself out of the bay and parks. The bay is now open for the next in line.

      You get a call either a few minutes before charging is complete (if you’re in a hurry) or after your car is parked (if you aren’t).

      1. Petra Liverani Avatar
        Petra Liverani

        Thanks, Bob.

  3. Chris Fraser Avatar
    Chris Fraser

    It’s clever and direct. In future we could possibly also anticipate induction loops located under a parked EV to permit “air” charging. Sort of like Bluetooth for energy. Although probably not as efficient.

    1. Bob_Wallace Avatar
      Bob_Wallace

      Not terribly inefficient for slow charging (approximately a 5% energy loss penalty).

      I don’t know if it would be reasonable to do rapid wireless charging.

      1. Chris Fraser Avatar
        Chris Fraser

        5% losses would be good value, imho. We could get a continuous trickle once we are up to cruising speed on induction freeways … and arrive with a greater state of charge than at the place we departed !

        1. Bob_Wallace Avatar
          Bob_Wallace

          I’ve never seen a convincing economic argument for wiring the roads.

          Sometime back South Korea wired 15 miles of highway and was running buses. I’ve heard nothing out of that project since. That leads me to suspect that it might not have worked very will.

  4. JustThink4Once Avatar
    JustThink4Once

    Replace the car with Tony Abbott’s ass and the symbolism is complete…..

    1. Peter Campbell Avatar
      Peter Campbell

      arse (Be nice to donkeys).

  5. nakedChimp Avatar
    nakedChimp

    I had to laugh for a minute, it looks so funny 🙂

    Amazing.
    Anyone an idea how the ‘tip’ finds the ‘socket’?

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