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Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

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Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#41

Post by EC1 »

josephwegner wrote: post #22
gfodor wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this less complicated? In your case you'd need to install something non-standard connected to high voltage power in the floor of your garage and then have to carefully park your car every time. It'd be expensive and tricky to install, and impose a mental burden every single time you park your car. Not to mention that it would have moving parts that are often put under strain (particularly in those instances wh…

I believe you're over-thinking it. You don't need to install it in your floor, you could simply place it on top of your floor. And it's not that hard to make it easy for people to line up - modern docks use a sort of fuzzy connector that doesn't need to lock in perfectly, just as long as you are within a certain range. The roomba is the best example that I can think of for this - I can pretty much set my roomba down…

I honestly have no idea how you don't see this as an awful idea. Not only do I not want to aim my car into the garage in the first place, now I have to aim within some range again? Definitely want to just park and have a snake extend into my car to charge, not some large clunky floor piece carrying the weight of my entire car.

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#42

Post by nkozyra »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #26
beltex wrote: post #4

This was originally mentioned by Elon back in October at the launch of the Dual Motor Model S and Autopilot event. It was in reference to the cars new ability to park itself. “Something I’d like to do, which I think many of our engineers will be hearing this in real-time, is have the charge connector plug itself in. Like an articulating, like sort of a snake, like Metal Gear Solid or something.” http://youtu.be/FZ6lZ…

"like Metal Gear Solid or something". My man-crush on this guy is only getting worse (better?). Realistically though, why not just have some sort of hard-arm extend? why the flexibility of a snake? with a little bit of OCR and an arm that can extend in length and rotate on an axis, it seems like you could get pretty close

Because then you'd have to park inline with the charger? A "snake" would give you some leeway.

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#43

Post by nkozyra »

Retric wrote: post #8
prawn wrote: post #2

Someone could do this for regular laptop hookups eventually . e.g. Every morning at the office, I connect a power cable, monitor cables and a mouse.

They have been around for 20+ years. It's called a laptop Base station / Docking station. There on a fairly wide range of buissness laptops sadly that's one of the ports that Apple does not seem to support. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_station

I don't see this as in anyway analogous to a charging system that automatically locates a device.

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#44

Post by xasos »

> Btw, we are actually working on a charger that automatically moves out from the wall & connects like a solid metal snake. For realz. > This can be used with all existing Model S cars, not just futures ones. [1]

Boy, do the Holiday gifts keep coming. While this won't necessarily solve a ton of problems, it will definitely be interesting to see what he can come up with. This would be super cool to see in action.

[1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/550297471289552898

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#45

Post by [deleted] »

Rezo wrote: post #35
revscat wrote: post #9

Is there any existing tech that even approaches this? Tesla cars are an evolution and improvement upon tech that previously existed. Ditto Space X. But I'm not aware of anything that even approaches Doc Ock-like articulating cables/hoses that are able to overcome the force of gravity.

Yes, take a look at this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gU6TWGynkU

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#47

Post by rebootthesystem »

This is neat tech, of course. I am not criticizing when I ask: Isn't this a solution without a problem?

How hard is it to get out of the car and plug in the charge cord?

Then there's the question of simple alternatives to a highly complex and potentially dangerous robotic solution. Think children in the garage.

Without thinking too hard the first thing that comes to mind is something like the contact rods that electric trams use. These could come out of the top or bottom of the car and make contact with suitably designed safe power delivery system.

Another option would be something like the jacks used to lift Formula 1 cars during pit stops.

Yet another would be a "docking station" you literally drive into, with contacts that connect through the front of the car. With self-driving Teslas this could be symbiotic.

Finally, something like the rig used to refuel jets in flight (probably too complex but I thought I throw it on the table).

I could also see something like a one meter diameter coil assembly that normally lays flat on the ground. When the car parks on top of it the motorized assembly comes up and couples with a matching coil on the bottom of the car for power transfer without exposed high voltage connectors.

In the end I go back to: how hard is it to plug in a cord? Have we gotten that lazy?

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#48

Post by [deleted] »

gfodor wrote: post #21
Retric wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have been around for 20+ years. It's called a laptop Base station / Docking station. There on a fairly wide range of buissness laptops sadly that's one of the ports that Apple does not seem to support. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_station

The advantage of a solution like this is that you don't have to find the cable (or in the case of a docking station, the place to put the laptop), the cable finds you. So you could put your laptop down anywhere in the office, and in theory, a cord would eventually wind its way over to you to plug itself in.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#49

Post by greglindahl »

genericresponse wrote: post #25
ape4 wrote: post #15

Cool, but its not exactly taxing to get out of the car to plug it in.

Yes, but unlike a gasoline powered car the typical "penalty" for forgetting to "refill" it is higher. If you forget to plug the car in on the wrong day, you might be stuck for upwards of 30 min waiting for it to charge. That's compounded with the fact that there are comparatively few charging stations available outside of home. Contrast this with a car where if I forget to fill it up the night before I lose 5-10 min…

The forgetting problem can be solved with an app: "Hey! I notice you've been parked at home for 10 minutes and aren't plugged in..."

Re: Tesla Is Working on Robotic Snakes That Emerge from the Wall to Charge Your Car

#50

Post by cmsmith »

josephwegner wrote: post #22
gfodor wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this less complicated? In your case you'd need to install something non-standard connected to high voltage power in the floor of your garage and then have to carefully park your car every time. It'd be expensive and tricky to install, and impose a mental burden every single time you park your car. Not to mention that it would have moving parts that are often put under strain (particularly in those instances wh…

I believe you're over-thinking it. You don't need to install it in your floor, you could simply place it on top of your floor. And it's not that hard to make it easy for people to line up - modern docks use a sort of fuzzy connector that doesn't need to lock in perfectly, just as long as you are within a certain range. The roomba is the best example that I can think of for this - I can pretty much set my roomba down…

The roomba achieves this through rather large contact pads on the base of the charger, which scaled up to car-size would be about 50cm across. What happens when my cat walks under my car and onto a large metal plate with a few kW of power flowing through it?
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