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Tesla Robotaxis Will Automatically Recharge Themselves (Robotic Snake Charger)
At the recent Autonomy Day at Tesla, Elon Musk confirmed that Teslas acting as robotaxies would go home and recharge themselves automatically.
(From Tesla's Autonomy Day presentation)
... seconds that essentially customers are fronting us the money for the car it's great so in terms of the one thing is the snake charger I'm curious about that and how did you determine the pricing looks like you're undercutting the average lyft or uber ride by about 50 percent...so snake charger is it's pretty straightforward it's from a vision prop standpoint it's like a known situation any kind of known situation with with vision is like like a charge port it's a trivial so so yeah the car would just automatically Park but and automatically plug in there would be no one no human supervision required...
This idea is at least sixty years old. Science fiction fans recall the 1960 short story Callihan and the Wheelies by Stephen Barr:
Amanda glared at the little object on wheels - it was about the size of a rollerskate and it seemed to be considering what to do next. It turned its photoelectric scanners this way and that, waving its jointed grappling arms about. Then it appeared to make up its mind, and trundled over to a wall socket in the baseboard, plugged itself in and proceeded to recharge itself.
(A self-charging robot)
Update 09-Mar-2026: It turns out there IS a good reference for this idea in Flying Dutchman (1951) by Ward Moore:
From the fuel storage an apparently endless hose snaked across the field, and reaching the bomber, became even more reptilian as it raised its head in response to electronic impulses, then crawling up the plane's towering side, blindly sought the intake leading to the empty gas tanks.
(Read more about the automatic fuel hose)
Thanks to SFFaudio for the lead on this story! End update.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 4/19/2019)
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