Image: Tesla
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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I'm sure there is more to this just scaling up a Qi charger to make it car-sized and I definitely think that this is a good idea (better than robot armature trying to plug in a CCS2 connector) but this is not exactly ground-breaking either, unless they have managed to make this technology much more efficient. Qi chargers waste about 50% of the energy they use (apparently).
Imagine getting stuck in one when it automatically heads home for a recharge, like those tiny robot floor cleaners!
That will be the day you wished you remembered to wear your asbestos and lead lined underwear.
This is silly. The robotaxi simply won't accept a trip that it won't be able to complete with the remaining battery charge. It will go and charge before it accepts another job.
Excellent point.
Does not account for customers who change the destination after pick up. Take me to Darwin, no wait, Hobart.
There are, at least in the lab, much more efficient EV wireless chargers at power levels over 100 kW.
https://www.ornl.gov/news/polyphase-wireless-power-transfer-system-achieves-270-kilowatt-charge-sets-another-world
Tesla confirmed on X that the efficiency is well above 90% (tweet was a reply to MKBHD's assertion the efficiency might be as high as 75%)
And there was a robotic device used to clean the interior of the car. The Tesla Space youtube channel has more on that. Tesla coming up with these new concepts but gets hammered because of the CEO. Who else is designing and providing conceptual models in this area of automated transport, wireless charging and offering your car to a fleet of driverless ride share vehicles.
Have you seen the inside of the robotaxi boot? Massive.
Not much room for humans in your vision of the future, Cam.
Just an EFT on legs.
Us humans will be doing more interesting or value-adding things than plugging cars in to charge
Ah, that old argument.
The machines will free you from drudgery!
Free you from a wage, more likely.
Interesting how ozzies don't mind eating gruit and vegetables but resent having to harvest them, and have to rely on underpaid itinerant usually tourist workers.
Perhaps the CEO could stop being such a dick. It's a win for everyone.
Sorry Riz, not really a fair comparison.
Robotaxis are not intended or designed for purchase by the general public, so charging at home is irrelevant.
Even if true, how much does the remote charging infrastructure cost?
This is actually not true. Watch the presentation again. Elon thinks that people are going to buy one of these, use it for their own use and then PAY A FEE to Tesla to put it to work driving everyone else around. Who for some reason, despite the costs of the Robotaxi being lower than operating your own vehicle, haven't bought one of their own.
Buy a robotaxi.
Then pay Tesla for permission to NOT use it privately.
Collect fares that are cheaper than a bus.
Makes sense.
I agree, wireless charging at 25 kW is great but when the vehicle doesn’t have a charge port it also means it is maxxed at 25 kW.
It also means one of the advantages of EVs - being able to drive them to places without specialised infrastructure - is lost. Not only can’t you use a power point, but you can’t use any of the existing charging infrastructure - Type 2, CCS, supercharger, anything. You can’t take a fold out solar panel kit camping with you.
Unless the charging mat is intended to be picked up and stored in the boot. I’m sure it can, but what’s the point?
The Robotaxi is a taxi. It's in the name. It has not been designed for personal use, so it doesn't need to do long road trips where the driver will need to stop and charge. Instead, it has been designed to be part of a fleet where the vehicles that need to return to the depot to be charged will be replaced by fully-charged vehicles from the depot.
It’s primarily for that, but it takes away the flexibility to use it anywhere else.
e.g. with a Model 3, on long road trips, the ideal set up is they you use superchargers, but you can’t also use public chargers (if superchargers don’t exist) or a power point at the other end.
Let’s say you want to use your car as a robotaxi 50 weeks a year but then take a trip with it for 3 weeks, you can’t.
Or for a more original example - using the driverless nature - you want to send some stuff to a friend who lives 300 km away - load the car up and set the destination - then ask your buddy to plug the car in to charge before it comes back. He can’t!
The car is only useable in locations where these wireless charging hubs exist. Given there are *still* major population centres that don’t have superchargers, it’s going to be a long wait.
Buy a Model 3 or Y instead.
You're not getting what I'm saying. You want it to act as a robotaxi 90% of the time but you also want flexibility for unplanned events. e.g. charging mat gets damaged and stops working. Now you can't just use (e.g.) a granny charger in an emergency - your car is bricked.
Sorry Charles, your sensibility won't be welcome here. This is, unfortunately, a de facto teslsa fanboy site.
Pity the car isn't going to be available for years (and the required ACTUAL FSD - not in my lifetime) ......but the easy publicity bit has been delivered. Such is Tesla today.
Not sure why and where I would use this. Assume all the other charging options will also be included. Otherwise the opportunity to achieve high rates of return on investment. Would this be the price of a cheap vehicle or the price of avoiding overheating?
But V2X is the future!!
Oh no!
Won't anyone think of the children!
Surely wireless charging will be applicable to other models? Put the mat in your garage, park the car and having charging available to work as required. And how much saving is it really to eliminate other charging options, including smart ones?