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Tesla filed a wi-fi EV charging patent earlier this 12 months that was simply revealed by the World Mental Property Group (WIPO) on September 6. This was noticed by SETI Park on X (previously referred to as Twitter), and whereas the final idea is actually nothing new, it implies that a part of what Tesla is engaged on for robotaxis and will reveal at its upcoming robotaxi occasion on October 10 is a wi-fi charging answer for them.
Once I say the final idea is actually nothing new, that’s as a result of that is nonetheless an inductive charging system (the commonest sort) and only a fundamental continuation of wi-fi EV charging, which I’ve been masking for greater than a decade and has absolutely been round for for much longer than that. Additionally, Tesla purchased a wi-fi EV charging agency a couple of 12 months in the past, which I wrote about simply earlier than it occurred, and we had lined that firm for years previous to the acquisition. The system is much like what one other firm offered for Chevy Volt drivers a decade in the past. I feel I first lined the corporate in 2011, a mere 13 years in the past.
So, once more, whereas Tesla simply filed a patent that innovates on the concept in some gentle method, the takeaway right here is much less in regards to the patent than about Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions. However, to start out with, if you wish to discover the patent, it’s proper right here. That is the summary: “The current disclosure pertains to techniques and strategies for estimating a number of parameters related to a converter to configure wi-fi charging settings for a wi-fi charging system. In some embodiments, a technique consists of: perturbing a primary coil that’s inductively coupled with a second coil; estimating a number of circuit parameters of a converter that contains the primary coil and the second coil based mostly on the perturbing; and configuring a number of wi-fi charging settings of a wi-fi charging system based mostly on the a number of circuit parameters, the place the wi-fi charging system is configured to cost a battery pack of a automobile based mostly on wi-fi switch of energy between the primary coil and the second coil.” Once more, nothing breakthrough right here, however it exhibits that Tesla continues to work on wi-fi charging.
A number of years in the past, Tesla was engaged on a “snake charger” that Elon Musk tweeted (this was lengthy earlier than he purchased Twitter). It was thought for a very long time after that, and had seemingly been the plan, that Tesla would roll out these type of robotic chargers to cost automobiles, notably robotaxis. Nonetheless, it appears that evidently thought has been useless for some time, and wi-fi EV charging definitely looks as if the best, most dependable, most sturdy, and most rational approach to cost up self-driving robotaxis.
The vital factor, nonetheless, is whether or not Tesla can enhance its FSD (Full Self Driving) tech sufficient to deploy robotaxis. There are two key components to this. The {hardware} and software program should be at a stage the place 1) Tesla could be assured sufficient with it to take legal responsibility out of the fingers of Tesla house owners and settle for the legal responsibility itself, and a pair of) regulators would really feel snug approving utterly self-driven robotaxis on the roads these regulators are answerable for (whether or not that be the streets of California, Texas, Florida, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, China, or Mars).
Nobody is aware of when Tesla will get to these milestones. Tesla FSD has improved massively up to now 6 months, after not bettering a lot in any respect for a number of years. Nonetheless, I’m nonetheless uncertain how a lot Tesla can get previous “The Seesaw Drawback,” which I first wrote about in 2012. Possibly it may possibly, perhaps it may possibly’t. Latest updates to FSD have once more been rolling out far more slowly than Elon Musk had forecasted earlier this 12 months or perhaps a few months in the past. After about 8 years of huge overestimates of how briskly the corporate will obtain robotaxi functionality, it’s unimaginable to know when Elon Musk and Tesla is likely to be on the house stretch versus treading water. We’ll see. Within the meantime, you may watch a video of my newest testing of FSD model 12.5 with David Havasi right here:
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