[ams6110]

There are several much simpler ways a robot car could connect itself for charging. This is just gee-whiz tech for its own sake, and it's fine for Tesla to do, don't get me wrong.

But as someone who can't afford to buy a Tesla, and who wouldn't spend that kind of money on a car even if I had it, I'd rather see the R&D going into more affordable, more practical EVs that I might actually consider purchasing.

[kalleboo]

Because the people who are skilled with robotics should instead be working on chemical engineering and process management?

I'm tired of seeing this fallacy of "one thing being developed means that another thing is being put on the sideline". It looks to me like Tesla have the best people on the jobs they need to be on, and just adding "more" isn't going to speed things up more than having more mothers will speed up pregnancy.

[leephillips]

May I borrow that line? It's a great way to express a point that I frequently try to make.

[chrisbennet]

But that is The Tesla Master Plan. Pay for the R&D with luxury vehicles before producing more adorable ones.

Build sports car

Use that money to build an affordable car

Use that money to build an even more affordable car

While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-p... (August 2006)

[chrisbennet]

*before producing more adorable ones"

Oops, I meant "affordable" but "adorable" works too I guess. :-)

[cjrp]

> There are several much simpler ways a robot car could connect itself for charging.

I was wondering if Tesla would introduce conductive charging at some point; install a base in your garage, park on top of it, car's charged by morning. Perhaps not feasible with the amount of energy they need to transfer?

[icebraining]

Even if technically feasible, it'd be a waste - the most efficient inductive charging systems still lose more than 10% of the energy.

[ceequof]

  There are several much simpler ways a robot car could 
  connect itself for charging

That's a bold assertion. What's your suggestion that would be simpler than a cable driven arm like in the OP? A couple linear actuators in the base, no precision bearings.