Automated charging "snake" for Tesla

Matt Simis

and I assume others. Pretty cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsAoMkm_DEw

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:959891

goz83

Never turn your back on that thing

punisher5112

It's coming to a backhole near you some day....

Now that's just been lazy.

unkel

That's an old one, Matt! Even Elon made the "don't stand close to it" insinuation

I don't agree it's being lazy. But I don't see it as a longer term solution either. Surely that must be the wireless induction charging. Park your car on your drive roughly where the charger is under the concrete and it will start charging automatically

I've never bought an expensive phone, but almost all my phones have been capable of this for the last 6 years or so. Plugging in to (slow) charge is a bit 2010, not 2020!

KCross

I think Musk said the final application of that is for level 5 autonomous cars (ride shares etc) rather than domestic installs. Not to say you couldn't use it in a domestic scenario but I don't think that was the application he was targeting.

ELM327

I would wager that wireless charging will be with us before autonomy level 5
Considering it already exists for phones with Li-ion batteries.

aliveandkicking

I'm sure I read somewhere that the issue with wireless charging is that at rates above ~20kW it interferes with nearby electrical equipment and is not safe for anyone with a pacemaker.

I don't think we're anywhere close to getting supercharger equivalent speeds (100kW+) wirelessly. If it ever happens at all it'll be quite a few years away. The automated charging "snake" is the best solution for now.

ELM327

aliveandkicking wrote: »

I'm sure I read somewhere that the issue with wireless charging is that at rates above ~20kW it interferes with nearby electrical equipment and is not safe for anyone with a pacemaker.

I don't think we're anywhere close to getting supercharger equivalent speeds (100kW+) wirelessly. If it ever happens at all it'll be quite a few years away. The automated charging "snake" is the best solution for now.

Baby steps
10 years ago no EV was sold except token amounts of roadsters and GWhizz.
Now there are a multitude of mass market EV available and fast charging at 100kW with more to come.

PS- interestng point re interference. My Leaf always lost FM reception while fast charging.

KCross

aliveandkicking wrote: »

I'm sure I read somewhere that the issue with wireless charging is that at rates above ~20kW it interferes with nearby electrical equipment and is not safe for anyone with a pacemaker.

I don't think we're anywhere close to getting supercharger equivalent speeds (100kW+) wirelessly. If it ever happens at all it'll be quite a few years away. The automated charging "snake" is the best solution for now.

Im sure wireless charging at home at 7kW's would be fine.

Anything above 20kW's is heading in the rapid charger direction and a cable is probably safer in that case.


I'd say this snake idea won't be seen in production for quite a while.

What we will see is systems in cars to auto dock with a wireless charger under the car. So, you get a charge plate installed in your garage or driveway and you press a button in the car and it centres itself over the charger to get the best efficiency. Doing it manually is an issue now because if its even slightly misaligned you get poor efficiency. So, the docking of it need to be automated and made available in production cars.

I think most of us will still be using a cable though because Im not willing to dig up my driveway for that little extra convenience. It takes 5secs to plug in the cable, it would probably take the car as long to align!