
Tesla unveils new car-charging robo-snake - daegloe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/08/06/tesla-unveils-weird-new-car-charging-robo-snake/
======
corysama
The gif is sped up. This vid is actual speed
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM0lRfX6YI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM0lRfX6YI)

I think it's awesome. But, it obvious that the current implementation will
inspire the creeps in lots of people. Sci-fi horror has put an unfortunate bad
rap on robotic tentacles and chromed vertebrae.

~~~
bendykstra
I bet if you exposed another mammal like a monkey or a cat to that recharging
tentacle, it would be frightened by it too. We are wired to be afraid of
snakes and snaky things. It's one of the most common phobias. Sci-fi horror
merely tapped into that fear.

~~~
eric_h
> We are wired to be afraid of snakes and snaky things

Are we really wired for it, though? I've personally never had that fear.

Perhaps it's a little more nurture than nature?

</anecdata>

~~~
jonchang
"Experiment 1 results indicated that observer rhesus monkeys acquired a fear
of snakes through watching videotapes of model monkeys behaving fearfully with
snakes.

In Experiment 2, observers watched edited videotapes that showed models
reacting either fearfully to toy snakes and nonfearfully to artificial flowers
(SN+/FL-) or vice versa (FL+/SN-). SN+/FL- observers acquired a fear of snakes
but not of flowers; FL+/SN- observers did not acquire a fear of either
stimulus.

In Experiment 3, monkeys solved complex appetitive discriminative (PAN)
problems at comparable rates regardless of whether the discriminative stimuli
were the videotaped snake or the flower stimuli used in Experiment 2. Thus,
monkeys appear to selectively associate snakes with fear."

Experiment 1 shows that monkeys become afraid of snakes through watching
videos of other monkeys being afraid of snakes. Experiment 2 shows that
monkeys don't acquire a fear of flowers if shown a video of other monkeys
being afraid of flowers. Experiment 3 shows that monkeys can still be
conditioned in other tasks using videos of either flowers or snakes.

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2230660](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2230660)

~~~
nothis
So, is it obvious that monkeys aren't afraid of snakes if they never see other
monkeys act afraid before? Because that's what I'd test first.

Further, if there's a learned fear of snakes, that might not be coincidence,
even if it's not genetic.

~~~
trevyn
Yep. From the actual paper referenced above:

"Although considerable controversy has existed over the extent to which this
fear of snakes is “innate” as opposed to based on learning, current evidence
suggests that learning is necessary for the fear to manifest itself, at least
for some primate species in which wild-reared but not laboratory-reared
monkeys show a fear of snakes (see Mineka & Cook, 1988, for a review). For
example, Mineka and Cook demonstrated that laboratory-reared rhesus monkeys
who were initially unafraid of snakes rapidly acquired a fear of snakes after
watching wild-reared model monkeys exhibit a strong fear of snakes (Cook,
Mineka, Wolkenstein, & Laitsch, 1985; Mineka, Davidson, Cook, & Keir, 1984).
The naive laboratory reared observers initially reached rapidly for food
placed adjacent to a series of stimuli, including a real snake, toy snakes,
and neutral objects."

~~~
tlarkworthy
My dog has instinctively done many high level things, peeing on tall things,
sexing anything, responding to scolding despite I have never been violent to
him, shaking water off with a weird reflex, pooing away from his home etc.
It's like those behaviours are already preprogrammed. Being scared of certain
classes of animals is no more.complex, I think humans probably have tons of
preprogrammed behaviours we later add a narrative to. Perhaps belief in unseen
agents is one of them.

------
Animats
Nice. Robotic fueling has been done before [1][2], but this is much less
clunky. This looks like the OC Robotics snake robot.[3] Finally, a use for
snake robots, which have been around for 25 years but are not used much. Tesla
has a good application for this - the car end is cooperative and standard. The
car's parking guidance system can be programmed to recognize visual targets
and get itself into the proper position.

The mechanism is simple. There are many linear actuators in the base pulling
on cables that run through the snake segments and attach to plates at the
joints.[4] Cable wear is a common problem, but that can be overcome. Charging
robots won't cycle that fast; tens of cycles per hour, not thousands.

[1] [http://fuelmatics.com/videos-2/video-
demonstration/](http://fuelmatics.com/videos-2/video-demonstration/) [2]
[http://www.robosoft.com/robotic-solutions/transport--
logisit...](http://www.robosoft.com/robotic-solutions/transport--
logisitics/automatic-refueling/) [3]
[http://www.ocrobotics.com/](http://www.ocrobotics.com/) [4]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTkmyDO2ubs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTkmyDO2ubs)

~~~
justlurkin
In my mind, I'm seeing a simpler solution that may be viable, enter the The
"Claw Game" charger:

* Attaches to ceiling of structure

* Has some sort of sensor to identify charging port, perhaps on the charger end itself

* Has some limited range of mobility - 2'x2' with X & Y axis movement

* Cord unreels down to the charging port once it is reasonably lined up

* Charging cable has Macbook style electromagnet, reaches "charging zone" and activates, inserting itself

* Safety checks are done, wattage is pumped into the cottage if all is well

I honestly don't know if this is better or worse, it's definitely less cool.

~~~
Animats
That could probably be made to work today, with the gear used by container
cranes to slot containers onto ships, trucks, and railroad cars. It would be
more complicated than the snake, because stabilizing a hanging load is hard.
Once in a while it would probably scratch the car body.

What a lot of people here aren't getting is that snake robots are mechanically
simple. They're unusual, but neither complex nor expensive to manufacture.

~~~
derefr
Would the claw still work if it was coated in soft rubber?

Alternately, I'm imagining the cute-but-ridiculous solution of making the claw
and the car magnetically repel one another, so as it the claw plumb-bobs
downward and swings toward the car, it just sort of naturally veers away from
the surface, rocking around it in an arc until it stabilizes.

~~~
hexasquid
T-600s were covered in rubber - turned out people could spot them easily, so
they were poor infiltrators.

Tesla should consider covering these with living tissue to make them more
palatable to humans.

------
uniformlyrandom
After watching this GIF, I imagined what it would feel like walking past a
charging station with this thing on it. How it slowly turns its 10KV-charged
head towards me.

"\- You definitely do look like a charging socket to me.

\- I really do not. Look, I am human...

\- No, you really do. You just need a quick charge..."

~~~
selestify
Just keep your mouth closed and it won't notice there's a socket to plug into.
Once you start talking though, it may keep applying greater and greater force
in a valiant attempt to insert the charger...

~~~
ethbro
That's an awfully optimistic anatomical statement when we're talking about
robotic snakes. Just saying.

~~~
beamatronic
I just realized that this is a "dual-use" technology, if you know what I mean.

~~~
Asparagirl
Probably a coincidence: [http://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/06/teslas-next-big-
supercha...](http://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/06/teslas-next-big-
supercharging-focus-japan/)

...probably.

------
shostack
Are there any engineering advantages from choosing this design vs. a more
traditional arm, or plug that just moves on two rails up or down and then
extends out?

In theory, there is minimal height distance from where such a charging station
would be in relation to the car and the charging port height, even when
accounting for different Tesla models. As such, I'm not clear why they went
with something that on the surface appears overly complicated unless it was
for the "wow" factor.

~~~
Animats
The snake arm is quite simple. The "snake" part is a set of dumb hinged
segments; it's all cable-driven from the base. The application does not
require much rigidity or repeatability. The load is low; it's just carrying a
power cable. There's probably a camera at the end of the tentacle to guide the
connector to the car's power socket. The car opens the connector cover, so
there's no need for a mechanism on the robot to do that. This is much simpler
and far less bulky than the automatic fueling systems that have been built to
refuel cars.

The marketing value of this is enormous. _People won 't have to get out of
their cars and get their hands dirty handling a gas hose._ This is going to go
over big with women.

~~~
tamal
The huge benefit will be when this is used in conjunction with the self
parking system. You drive up to the front of your house, get out, and the car
drives itself into the garage and plugs itself in.

~~~
NextPerception
I completely agree. I came here to say this but see you beat me to it! I might
add that this could be used to park your car miles from where you live. You
would simply let your car know when to pick you up and it would come to you
like calling the valet at a hotel before heading out. If tesla had overnight
parking garages/chargers scattered around we could use all that garage space
in our houses for more activities!

~~~
shostack
That's a really interesting thought once you consider where autonomous
vehicles are going with Uber and Google's self-driving vehicles.

It makes a ton of sense that any such vehicle, in addition to going to pick
you up, drive you around and drop you off needs to be able to park itself at
home base and refuel in an automated fashion.

~~~
cam-
Yeh way cool, you don't need a driveway or garage then. It would be good to
reclaim that space.

------
GeorgeOrr
That is an interesting video to watch. I immediately imagine a self driving
car, on its way to pick me up, swinging by this robot arm to charge up.

I wonder if it would be possible for something like this to provide a charge
while moving? Like airplanes that can be fueled in the air.

I suspect the energy to keep the charger itself moving would make that a
pretty inefficient way of doing things, but it's fun to imagine.

~~~
codeulike
The weight of the battery needed to charge a Tesla at anything like a 'fast'
rate would be huge ... there's no efficient way of then propelling such a
heavy battery along without then needing even more heavy batteries or a big
ICE engine. So nope.

I think this is meant to complement the (as yet unreleased) Tesla can-park-
itself-in-your-garage feature.

~~~
Amorymeltzer
Or allow you charge-up without really doing anything. Stay inside your car and
read at the supercharger station!

~~~
seanp2k2
Or, cars become a shared resource and you just call up basically a driverless
Uber when you need it. That's the future I want to see in e.g. areas where
mass-transit is blocked politically (e.g. BART from SF to SJ) or where the
population density is such where it doesn't make sense.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Looks like Elon plans on competing with Uber.

[http://qz.com/473803/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-potential-
uber-p...](http://qz.com/473803/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-potential-uber-
partnership-hmmm/)

------
tormeh
I've long been disappointed that, even as far as we've come, most robots or
moving computer-controlled things have been a box with something going round
on it (car, washing machine etc.) or sometimes back and forth along a straight
line. This therefore pleases me greatly.

(and it totally gives me the creeps)

~~~
wesleyy
it's not without good reason. there's no point in over engineering something
when a simpler design can do the trick.

------
brianstorms
Can you imagine how pets are going to react to this?

A real-world use-case involves this in a garage, and you pull into the garage
(or tell the car to) and it parks and then this snake starts its dance and
finds the chargeport and connects and starts charging... and your dog goes
completely ape-shit. And barks and shrieks and jumps and snaps its teeth and
gets a nice vise-grip with the snake in its jaws and next thing you know, just
like in cartoons, you suddenly see a black silhouette of the dog and inside
the silhouette the white skeleton bones of said dog flashing brightly as it
electrocutes itself at 80 amps and 240 volts. Tesla 1, Dog 0.

~~~
aembleton
I doubt that any current is being passed through that snake until it has made
a connection with the car. Then once it is charging it will be protected with
an RCD, so your dog might live.

------
jewbacca
Not strictly on-topic or generally interesting, but for any of us who've read
Neal Stephenson's new novel 'Seveneves', this reveal has a thin extra layer of
interestingness:

In that book, a character who is an obvious analogue for Elon Musk sponsors
the development of a variety of asteroid mining robots, including a type that
superficially resembles this thing. 'Siwis' are, unlike this real thing,
modular, semi-autonomous, self-propelling, and meant for operating in zero-
gravity.

But still... snake robot sponsored by Elon Musk, out of nowhere.

~~~
mrbill
I got more of a Richard Branson vibe than Musk, from the book.

------
Negitivefrags
Somehow this feels like an overcomplicated / expensive solution given that
they control both the car and the charger. How much would it cost to install a
robosnake in my garage.

Could they put a charging port on the back of the car that you back onto
something? Or something on the floor that you drive over? There has to be a
cheaper solution. If a Roomba can do it we must be able to.

I mean, that wouldn't be backwards compatible with existing teslas but I
wouldn't think the installed base would be so high that that is a big issue
yet.

~~~
sombremesa
This probably isn't meant to be installed in your home. Additionally I think
Tesla's philosophy has been to popularize electric cars first and foremost,
regardless of whether it's their own cars, so designing proprietary stuff
won't help.

Elon Musk in general seems to go for "inspire other people to make shit, even
if I personally go down in flames in the end". Of course, that doesn't mean he
takes unnecessary risks, he just values doing inspiring/world-changing things
more than doing profitable things in the long term.

(Also this would probably be great for self-driving electric cars)

~~~
rebeccaskinner
I think tesla would be very happy for other companies to be making electric
cars and using tesla for batteries and other components. Really I think this
is the long game, to goad other companies into making electric cars and then
to be the control the primary means of powering / recharging them.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Didn't Tesla open source their patents? I think I read at the time that would
allow others to make recharging plugs that adhered to Tesla's standards.

------
rmason
As a native Michigander I continue to be amazed at how Tesla is able to out
innovate Detroit. After 100+ years of gasoline powered automobiles where is
the gas robo snake?

~~~
toomuchtodo
[https://youtu.be/0bZ2u5UnApA](https://youtu.be/0bZ2u5UnApA)

~~~
rmason
Thanks, but note that it wasn't created by a member of the Big 3 ;<(. I cannot
wait to be able to order fuel Uber-like on my phone and have it fill the tank.
Detroit needs this now as it would practically eliminate car jacking.

~~~
greggyb
Tesla's charging arm wasn't created by a member of the Big 3....

------
Dylan16807
Very neat tech.

Also interesting delivery method for the image in the article... and you can
do
[https://images.washingtonpost.com/?url=https://www.google.co...](https://images.washingtonpost.com/?url=https://www.google.com/images/srpr/logo11w.png&op=noop)

------
TranquilMarmot
Why do they want me to enter my email address to continue reading? I had to
delete 3 HTML nodes to get past their "drawbridge"...

Here's the gif for anyone who doesn't want to deal with the (totally useless)
article: [https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-
switch/files/2015/0...](https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-
switch/files/2015/08/chargersnake.gif)

~~~
vortico
Adblocks, popup blockers, and my custom filters still aren't able to make news
article websites usable, so I just don't even try anymore.

------
stickydink
I think a lot of people were waiting for it, Elon basically described this
last December!

> Btw, we are actually working on a charger that automatically moves out from
> the wall & connects like a solid metal snake. For realz.

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/550297212769402881](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/550297212769402881)

------
bane
This is pretty cool, I kind of wish it pulsed a little, like it was feeding,
while it's plugged in and charging.

------
achr2
Definitely a PR move to compete with the simultaneous hacking story.

~~~
andygates
..which is odd, because the hacking stories are suggesting "everybody gets
hacked", and Tesla are the only ones with the capability to do an OTA security
fix (which they have done).

------
tamersalama
Why isn't it a bottom/base charging devise? I imaging placing a plug at the
bottom of the car (perhaps at the back or front of the battery pack) isn't
difficult.

~~~
27182818284
This is what I think they may secretly be working on for instant charging.
Like you stop by a Tesla Super Duper station, and the battery in part or as a
whole is just hot swapped with robotics and you're on your way in say 5
minutes

~~~
gojomo
It's no secret – they've promised and demoed that capability for a while – but
the rollout has been slow, and may be primarily motivated by gaming the tax-
credits available if the Model S has a 'fast-fueling' option. See for example:

[http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-
battery...](http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-battery-swap-
harris-ranch-20150310-story.html)

------
jeromeflipo
Why not put that thing into the car? It would take both space and weight (i.e
impact range and performance) but then we could install outlets anywhere. The
car (fleet) owner would be responsible for everything, including maintenance
and replacements.

Maybe there's a reason why cables are part of the appliances instead of the
outlets? Also, car owners would certainly prefer a snake that works everywhere
and not just at home.

~~~
hvis
As a piece of new technology, it might need more frequent replacements than an
averate Tesla car part.

Also, it would be unfortunate if you can't refuel your car because it has no
juice left to power this appendage.

------
whitej125
Looks much like to robotics made by Festo. I recall seeing a "elephant trunk"
type of arm. Wonder if this is based on anything from these guys.

[http://news.discovery.com/tech/robotics/robotic-arm-
inspired...](http://news.discovery.com/tech/robotics/robotic-arm-inspired-by-
elephant-trunk.htm)

~~~
jackjm
Yeah, reminds me Festo too.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKJybDb1dz0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKJybDb1dz0)

------
sandworm101
Really? Is the need to get out and hook up the hose yourself really what's
holding back electric cars?

There is certainly a cool factor with this thing, but think about how it will
work at a real fuel/charging station. The driver will only ever see it in a
mirror. And it looks like the range of motion is very limited, requiring the
plug to be within a 30x30cm box. A later model will probably have a greater
range of motion but I cannot see that be any less cumbersome. Give me a wire
and a plug.

But maybe Tesla has done some market research. Maybe their target market is
old people for whom getting out of the car is a real struggle. Maybe they fear
large electrical cables more than rubber ones filled with gasoline. Or maybe
they so distrust attendants that they prefer a mechanical octopus fuel their
precious car ... until it misses the mark and does some actual damage to the
paint.

~~~
dkokelley
While most if not all "concept technology" has its roots in the "we can do it,
even if we don't know why we should" school of thought, I imagine this will be
valuable for self driving cars. Imagine a car that can drop you off at work,
drive itself to the closest robo-charger, and return to pick you up with a
full charge, all without needing an attendant.

Given the current limited range of EVs, tech like this will likely encourage
behavioral change in EV owners, reducing one of the negatives of EVs
(forgetting to charge/not having enough charge to make it to your
destination/having to remember to plug in every night), and ultimately
spurring wider adoption.

Then again, sometimes you have to say "I wonder if we could..." before you
fully understand why in order to advance technology.

~~~
sandworm101
That's how we end up with inflatable bbqs. This really looks like a rich
person's toy, of no practical use.

Many people have talked over the years about self-driving cars dropping people
off and heading home. That sounds great in terms of the number of parking
spots, and might make sense in cities where parking costs more than rent, but
I cannot see how doubling the number of trips can reduce traffic congestion.
The far simpler solution would be to install simple (ie cheap) chargers at
each parking spot.

~~~
Goronmon
_Many people have talked over the years about self-driving cars dropping
people off and heading home._

Have they? I've just seen references to cars finding _nearby_ charging
stations, not just driving themselves all the way home.

Either way, I think the more likely prospect is that people stop outright
owning cars at that point. Why invest in a complete vehicle when you can just
pay for a service that has a car pick you up whenever you need a ride?

~~~
greggyb
For the same reason some people invest in a whole kitchen, despite the fact
that they can pay for a service that has food show up in front of them
whenever they're hungry.

Some people like to own their own things.

Some people like to do things themselves.

There will always be locations where there is not enough population density to
ensure wait times will be <5 minutes for a ride at all times.

There's no reason to expect that self-driving cars will instantly dominate the
market once we get to some sort of tipping point. Certainly they will allow
for new paradigms in transportation, and they will shift "manual"[0] cars into
a less dominant position in the market. Keep in mind that not everyone shares
your preferences.

[0] It is interesting that we already have manual and automatic cars. How will
we readily distinguish these? Additionally, I'd imagine that there is a large
venn diagram overlap between drivers who prefer stick shift and who will
prefer to drive their own vehicle.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Don't ignore developing markets. The USA has plenty of roads to waste, but
Beijing and Bangalore don't. You'll see self driving cars be first mandated in
cities with serious infrastructure problems as a way to completely optimize
traffic (e.g. No manual cars on the express ways). Then local western
governments will see a chance to cut their own budgets, as an easy way to
satisfy the anti-tax attitudes of those people who ironically would prefer to
drive their own cars.

~~~
greggyb
I think your post goes to support my point that there is great diversity in
markets, and we can't expect a single individual's experience or preference to
accurately represent such.

> the anti-tax attitudes of those people who ironically would prefer to drive
> their own cars.

I am curious as to why you think that there would be such a large crossover
between those who would prefer to have a "manual" car, and those who have
anti-tax attitudes?

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Because self-driving cars are socialist to an extreme. The real benefit of
them is not to free the human of the tedious task of driving, but to take the
human out of the traffic system so it can be optimized for the greater good.
The same could be said about taxes: they sacrifice individual wealth for the
greater good.

There will necessarily be a lot of resistance to self driving cars...people
like driving! But they are quite inevitable, not necause people will "prefer"
them but for totally societal economic reasons. And that is why your argument
doesn't make sense to me, it's as if we will have any choice about it, when
the current system is so messed up and under funded that it's obvious we
won't.

~~~
greggyb
There's no reason to expect "enjoys the experience of driving" and "is opposed
to taxation" are descriptions of an individual that must be found exclusively
together. That's the issue I take with your original statement.

I also see no reason to expect that it is inevitable that self-driving cars
become mandatory globally, but that is a different point entirely and not one
I'm interested in pursuing right now.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Taxation is the redistribution of wealth to benefit society as a whole. Self-
driving cars is about taking away the task of driving from humans, which is
really a privilege, for the benefit of infrastructure optimization. If you
believe in retaining personal wealth, you probably believe in retaining your
driving privileges as well.

> I also see no reason to expect that it is inevitable that self-driving cars
> become mandatory globally, but that is a different point entirely and not
> one I'm interested in pursuing right now.

Your premise is just completely flawed: you see self-driving cars as providing
the benefit of freeing humans from the tedium of driving themselves, when in
reality they are more about optimizing limited infrastructure. The former is a
"nice to have but not necessary" benefit, the latter basically drastically
reduces the amount of resources needed to maintain a city, it is a serious
economic benefit that will be very hard to ignore. Of course, your city could
allow for manual driving, but at great cost in needing more roads and such, it
would be a serious tax burden on your residents (and rich countries can afford
it now, but will they be able to afford it as populations double, triple, and
space becomes much more limited?).

So your premise is flawed, you are attacking the wrong thing.

------
jadell
I'm picturing an interview with Elon Musk next week.

Interviewer: So what's next for you?

Musk: Well, I've been reading a lot about the teledildonics industry, and I
think there's some real opportunities for synergy with some of the
technologies we've been developing for Tesla. Especially in the Japanese
hentai markets...

------
j1vms
Guess they want to get this out in time for:

[http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Texaco_service_station...](http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Texaco_service_station#2015)

------
cmiller1
I think Infiniti's induction charging concept seems much cooler:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlYADNqxrPw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlYADNqxrPw)

~~~
mikeash
That's OK for overnight charging, if you don't mind paying a little extra for
the electricity due to losses. But for fast charging, those losses translate
into massive waste heat. A Tesla supercharger, for example, tops out at 120kW
of power. If the inductive charger is 90% efficient (which I _think_ is a
realistic number) then that's 12kW of heat to dissipate. That's a lot. The car
itself has similar losses when charging, and has a hefty cooling system to
keep up with it, and it's going into a massive battery. Cooling a small
inductive charging pad could get interesting.

------
dewarrn1
Interesting idea. Before Shai Agassi's electric car company (Better Place)
folded there was talk of a similar motorized arm [0]. I don't know whether
that ever got past the discussion stage at BP, and they're out of business in
any event.

[0]
[http://archive.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-09...](http://archive.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-09/ff_agassi?currentPage=4)

------
keerthiko
Should have seen this coming.

Oct 10, 2014 -
[https://youtu.be/FZ6lZJWL_Xk?t=9m23s](https://youtu.be/FZ6lZJWL_Xk?t=9m23s)

------
FrojoS
Finally a consumer application for a robotic arm!

------
blackbeard
My wife has a phobia of snakes and worms. This isn't going well for my Model X
sales pitch to her...

~~~
jedberg
I'm pretty sure your entire pitch is the doors go like this:

    
    
        |   |
    

instead of this:

    
    
        -   -

~~~
lucio
Half the doors go | |, the other half - -

It makes the "small parking space enter-exit point moot", I don't get it.

~~~
blackbeard
This is why:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFr5T85F9Zw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFr5T85F9Zw)

------
kubov
Looks a bit like a elephant trunk robotic arm[1], really neat I wonder if
that's not a little bit over engineered, though.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZF35JUNaDg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZF35JUNaDg)

------
smokinjoe
For whatever reason this immediately made me think of NJ's laws requiring an
attendant to fill up your gas tank. Does the law apply to electric charging
stations currently?

If it does, I wonder what this innovation might mean to that law.

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ksec
It should be a Robot, and not Snake like, Which to me is still very
unpleasant.

Some may think this is cool, but to me this isn't very user friendly.

I hope this is just a concept. Because I hate to see it in real world.

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wavesum
"they were able to hack into the Model S and hit the brakes"

This is bullshit right? They were able to disable the engine, but the onboard
logic makes sure that the car comes to a gradual stop.

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erickhill
I wouldn’t mind these in Oregon when I fill up for gas (where the gas
attendants have to pump your gas for you). Way less awkward as long as I stay
in the car.

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vlunkr
Do they really intend to release this, or is it just an experiment? Because
there's no way that thing is going to save enough time to be worth the cost.

~~~
damon_c
I don't have a Tesla. But if I did, and I had to remember to get out, walk
around to the back and plug it in every time I got home, I would probably want
one of these in my garage!

~~~
chc
Given average driving habits, the range of the Model S and the charging speed
of the Model S, the back of my napkin suggests you'd only really need to plug
it in once or twice a week. So forgetting occasionally doesn't sound like a
huge bummer.

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takee
I really don't understand the creep factor that everyone's talking about. To
me it just looks like a metallic robotic arm. Am I missing anything?

~~~
GhotiFish
It looks like something from imagination of H. R. Giger.

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iNerdier
Having watched a large number of David Attenborough nature documentaries all I
can think of is the footage of whales mating when seeing this thing...

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bliti
I wonder what fail safes it has to manage someone driving off with the arm
attached. Like the terminator hanging from the side of the car swinging around
like crazy. Can't wait ro see it in action. I know Shell petroleum worked on a
similar system for gasoline cars around the year 2000. It was deemed too risky
to use.

~~~
mikeash
The car won't shift out of park if there's anything in the charge port.

Edit: regarding the Shell attempt, one great thing about EVs is how safe they
are to "refuel." You can literally have a four year old do it. I have.

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daveloyall
Tesla cars will be self-driving soon, right? Let's call such cars 'robots'.

Isn't there some convention against allowing robots to re-fuel without human
intervention?

Isn't such a rule in the same class as the rule against giving them the keys
to the armory?

~~~
daveloyall
I'm just saying, in a world where self-driving cars go rouge, we're gonna want
to deny them access to charging stations, and the charging snakes make it just
that much harder.

~~~
nekopa
I don't know, at least if the evil cars turn bright red we'll be able to spot
them easily ;-)

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assaflavie
Should be tagged NSFW.

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Digit-Al
Is anyone else thinking of the film Demon Seed?

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thomasrossi
I hardly believe it's enough to justify the poor 2015 quarters financials

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curiousjorge
this better not awaken anything in me.

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return0
Unveils?? This looks way too bad to be anything more than a sloppy prototype.

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legohead
I invested a little into Tesla stock just because I like the company. Its been
funny to me that pretty much any news, good or bad, makes the stock fall.

New prototype robotic charging arm? stock down ~8%

~~~
drpancake
There was quite a lot of other Tesla-related news today. The company announced
that they're struggling to ramp up production for the Model X and, totally
unrelated, the Model S got hacked.

~~~
legohead
Ahh, okay, didn't look into it that much. Thanks ;)

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elwell
If your still using a gas fueled vehicle, my startup will do this for you (we
use only humans at the moment, however).

[http://purpledelivery.com](http://purpledelivery.com) (LA only)

~~~
austinh100
FYI you need to fix that site, it takes me a full 2.5 minutes to finish
loading with 150mbit internet in LA.

~~~
elwell
Nothing showed for that long or the video was loading in the background?

