Just a week after Tesla paraded its self-driving Robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals at the Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood, the company has now also revealed more details about the wireless charging capabilities that it also flagged.
In a video shared by Tesla on X, captioned “ Robotaxi wireless charging. No hands required”, the Robotaxi is seen backing up onto a wireless charging pad to begin topping the battery up from 35%.
The video then shows the screen on the inside of the car, which ramps up the power from zero up to 25 kW.
Soon after, the charge session skips to charge session completion at 80%, when the Robotaxi is ready to drive off to pick up the next round of passengers.
Robotaxi wireless charging
No hands required pic.twitter.com/XL746DkGhb
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 18, 2024
Tesla has highlighted the change since it first talked of the autonomous charging future back in 2015.
At that time, the Tesla showed a robotic arm with a charging plug that would plug into the Model S charging port.
Tesla re-shared that concept by saying: “We’ve come a long way, haha”.
We’ve come a long way haha https://t.co/FGiL54sMEs
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 18, 2024
Last year, at an investor’s event, the company teased a Tesla Model parked in the garage with what appeared to be a wireless charging pad.
This spread a few rumours amongst the Tesla community about whether the company was really working on a wireless charging product for existing owners.
Then, at the end of last year, Tesla appears to have quietly bought a German company specialising in wireless EV charging, confirming its hint at Investor Day in March that it was looking at the technology.
Now, it’s starting to showcase the technology it’s been working on with the autonomous Robotaxi and potentially the humanoid robot Optimus.
For the Robotaxi application, the seamless autonomous operation is probably more important than the speed of charge.
Rides in the city of the future https://t.co/swCCGwLP1X pic.twitter.com/mu5IfQD6AN
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 17, 2024
25 kW wireless charging is fairly reasonable given that most Tesla models charge 11 kW on a three-phase supply. Meanwhile, many other passenger EVs only feature a 7 kW on-board charger.
The wireless charging setup will help the Robotaxi get quick top-ups between trips. As Tesla continues to work on this product, we are bound to get updates on key developments, including its charging capabilities, in the coming months.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.