http://www.cnet.com/news/teslas-robo-snake-charger-prototype-is-our-new-car-overlord/ Tesla's robo-snake charger prototype is our new car overlord August 6, 2015 by Amanda Kooser Chris Pauker
[image http://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/08/06/b1a594f2-9c43-4efb-b744-80dd8f77ecc6/ae1bfb3349c92e717398fc09559f6a67/teslacharger.jpg Tesla builds Doc Ock's arm. Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET video https://youtu.be/uMM0lRfX6YI Charger prototype finding its way to Model S ] In the future, we will all drive electric cars, and semi-sentient robots will refuel them for us. That seems to be the way things are heading after Tesla Motors shared a video Thursday of a prototype charger attaching itself to a Model S. This would be no big deal, except the charger requires no human interaction and looks like a cross between a "Battlestar Galactica" Cylon and a snake. The sci-fi-looking device is aimed at making life easier for Tesla owners. If it goes into widespread use at some point, then drivers could just hang out in their air-conditioned cars while the charger does its work. If you had one at home, you could just park in your garage, let your intelligent charger hook up with your car and go right on about your day. The segmented silver creation looks like something that would jump out of the shadows in a "Star Trek" movie. It's a little bit creepy and a whole lot of wonderful. You have a technologically advanced car, so you might as well have a high-tech bendable charger doohickey to go with it. Tesla has been systematically working to build a charging infrastructure to support its electric cars. Elon Musk's company has developed a global network of free Superchargers along battery swap stations designed to get owners charged up and back on the road quickly. Musk himself hinted at the charger project back in December by tweeting about it, likening the as-yet-unseen device to a "solid metal snake." In October 2014, Tesla noted that it is working on an "electrically opening, self-closing charge port door on Dual Motor Model S." The hands-off door would work nicely with the automated charger. The prototype seems to work pretty smoothly. It starts straight up in the air and then bends, searching for the charge port on the car. It finds it quickly and plugs in, turning the port green to indicate it's working. This would be way more fun than connecting it yourself. Now Tesla just needs to build a multi-snake version of this thing and dress it up like Doc Ock. [© cnet.com] ... http://fortune.com/2015/08/06/tesla-self-connecting-charger/ Watch Tesla's creepy automatic charger connect to a car by Laura Lorenzetti August 6, 2015 ... http://www.popsci.com/prehensile-robot-snake-will-sniff-out-and-charge-your-tesla-car Prehensile Robot Snake Will Sniff Out And Charge Your Tesla Car By Paul Adams Aug 6th, 2015 http://www.treehugger.com/cars/elon-musk-tweets-video-teslas-strange-snakebot-autocharger-prototype.html Elon Musk tweets video of Tesla's strange 'snakebot autocharger' prototype Michael Graham Richard August 6, 2015 [images http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2015/08/tesla-snakebot-autocharger.jpg.662x0_q70_crop-scale.jpg Tesla Snakebot autocharger Screen capture Twitter/Tesla http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2015/01/tesla-model-s-charger-liquid-metal-snake-elon-tweet.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg Tesla Model S liquid metal snake Tesla/Promo image http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2014/10/tesla-autopilot-98342341.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg Tesla Autopilot Tesla/Promo image tweet Elon Musk @elonmusk Tesla Snakebot autocharger prototype. Does seem kinda wrong :) https://twitter.com/teslamotors/status/629305813912326146 https://t.co/vXpCrKNdlV 10:48 AM - 6 Aug 2015 1,590 1,590 Retweets 2,052 ] Do you want this in your garage? People like convenience? Not having to go to the gas station anymore is one of the big perks of electric cars, but you still have to charge up the batteries, which means you have to do the herculean effort of plugging in the car using your own hands, right? Maybe not for long. Elon Musk has tweeted a video showing what he calls the Tesla 'snakebot autocharger' (catchy name, could work for a Transformer) ... Of course this is just a prototype, a proof of concept. If/when this thing gets deployed in the real world, it'll probably be much faster and look more polished. Maybe something like this: Except that there could be a home version that allows you to just drive into your garage or to a certain spot in your driveway, and then not even have to think about plugging in, the snakebot autocharger will do it for you. It's not the most important thing, but anything that increases convenience will probably help sell more EVs, and this will remove the risk of forgetting to plug-in after a long day of driving and waking up to a depleted battery the next morning. Just that will probably make it worth it to all the absent-minded people out there. And Teslas won't just plug themselves in, they're also about to start driving themselves [ http://www.treehugger.com/cars/teslas-are-about-start-driving-themselves-elon-musk-says-twitter.html ] (at least to some degree on the highway). Convenience, right? [© 2015 MNN HOLDING] For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ http://www.the-peak.ca/2015/08/bring-more-plug-in-cars-to-canada/ Need to bring more plug-in cars to Canada http://www.thelocal.dk/20150803/copenhagen-to-reach-600-ev-charging-stations 100 more added to 500 public EVSE in Copenhagen.dk + EVLN: Kiwi Tesla-S EVangel uses Uber to give free rides> teaching EVs {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Tesla-s-prototype-robo-snake-EVSE-overlord-tp4677104.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
