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Thursday, August 6, 2015

Tesla's Charger prototype.

And today that admirable trait comes in the form of what appears to be an automated charger for its Model S car.

The 37-second clip posted to its Twitter account shows a metallic prototype finding and connecting with the charging port of the car. It's not the most radical thing in the world – we have had automated robots in car manufacturing plants for decades – but it does show that the company is constantly working on innovative solutions to improve its product.

Tesla didn't provide any context around the video but we are going to make a few educated guesses:

A lot of Tesla owners get very annoyed when they realize they've forgotten to plug in their car overnight
The charger begins after following a combination of motion and proximity detection (or maybe it uses a pressure pad), i.e., when it knows the car is there
The car charging port puts out some kind of information that identifies its location – it could be just the ring of lights you can see in the video; it could be that the lights flash at a certain frequency that identifies it as a Tesla charging socket rather than, say, a flash light There are of course a lot of things to consider before such a charger could be added to your house:

How do you stop people driving off with the charger still attached?
What if the driver wants to get something out the trunk after they park and the charger is in the way?
How does the charger port on the car open – does it require the driver to remember to do something?
Would it require professional installation (limiting roll out)?
What safety features are needed to prevent it hitting people?
What happens if it can't find the charger port, and instead scrapes up your car?