As promised in a tweet by Elon Musk in December, Tesla just revealed a video for its newest gadget: a snake-like charger that will emerge from the wall and plug itself into the charging port of the Model-S all-electric vehicles. Tesla has set up 487 of its Supercharge stations globally. The snake chargers are not yet on the market.
The charge port opens when it senses that the snake is nearby, in the same manner that the Model-S’s car-door handles push out when the driver approaches with the keys. The multi-jointed charger arm then finds its way to the port for automatic charging.
Watch the charger operate in the following video on Engineering TV:
Leah Scully is a graduate of The College of New Jersey. She has a BS degree in Biomedical Engineering with a mechanical specialization. Leah is responsible for Machine Design’s news items that cover industry trends, research, and applied science and engineering, along with product galleries. Visit her on Facebook, or view her profile on LinkedIn.
