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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 bat

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.

seiji 11y ago
The tyranny of the self driving self driving car refueling bot.
Amorymeltzer 11y ago
Or allow you charge-up without really doing anything. Stay inside your car and read at the supercharger station!
- seanp2k2 11y ago
  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 11y ago
    Looks like Elon plans on competing with Uber. http://qz.com/473803/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-potential-uber-partnership-hmmm/ http://qz.com/473803/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-potential-uber-p...
  - andygates 11y ago
    Imagine your robo-tentacle in drab safety black-and-yellow, have a hundred of them waving in the dark waiting for their JohnnyCabs to come in for a charge between fares...
toufka 11y ago
I bet there could be creative situations where it could work. Imagine a rig that joins to an electric overhead line (like a light rail). The rig could move at the speed limit around the ring-loop of a city's interstate. Cars can pull alongside it to charge. If it had enough arms, and was narrow enough you could charge quite a few cars. If its then charging from the grid it needn't actually be propelling a battery at all. Or in a situation where moving the battery already happens. Maybe where a whole fleet of trucks have purchased into a booster pack scheme. The booster packs fall on and off at various cities along a long route. Kind of like jettisoning a space shuttle's boosters. On either side of the city you have 50 packs charging. Radio that you need more juice and as you hit the city limits a booster latches on, you trail it through the city charging your main pack back up, and drop it off on the other side of the city where it charges and waits for someone going the other way. The truck never stops, it just keeps going and gets 'boosted' by a self-driving battery trailer every time it's within 100 miles of a city.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
maxerickson 11y ago
In stunt mode you could just gang several Model S batteries together (which would fit in the back of a pickup). I guess the idea isn't very practical though.

seiji 11y ago

The tyranny of the self driving self driving car refueling bot.

Amorymeltzer 11y ago

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

seanp2k2 11y ago
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 11y ago
  Looks like Elon plans on competing with Uber. http://qz.com/473803/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-potential-uber-partnership-hmmm/ http://qz.com/473803/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-potential-uber-p...
- andygates 11y ago
  Imagine your robo-tentacle in drab safety black-and-yellow, have a hundred of them waving in the dark waiting for their JohnnyCabs to come in for a charge between fares...

toufka 11y ago

I bet there could be creative situations where it could work. Imagine a rig that joins to an electric overhead line (like a light rail). The rig could move at the speed limit around the ring-loop of a city's interstate. Cars can pull alongside it to charge. If it had enough arms, and was narrow enough you could charge quite a few cars. If its then charging from the grid it needn't actually be propelling a battery at all. Or in a situation where moving the battery already happens. Maybe where a whole fleet of trucks have purchased into a booster pack scheme. The booster packs fall on and off at various cities along a long route. Kind of like jettisoning a space shuttle's boosters. On either side of the city you have 50 packs charging. Radio that you need more juice and as you hit the city limits a booster latches on, you trail it through the city charging your main pack back up, and drop it off on the other side of the city where it charges and waits for someone going the other way. The truck never stops, it just keeps going and gets 'boosted' by a self-driving battery trailer every time it's within 100 miles of a city.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

maxerickson 11y ago

In stunt mode you could just gang several Model S batteries together (which would fit in the back of a pickup). I guess the idea isn't very practical though.