Tesla's Robotaxi Event: Mostly Fluff, Except for One Interesting Technical Detail

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Tesla's much-hyped robotaxi debut was a master class in dressing up vaporware, save for one tiny mention of a product that is already on its way to a garage near you: wireless EV charging.

The two autonomous vehicles that headlined the event, the Cybercab and Robovan, will not have a charge port. Instead, they will power up by driving over a small pad, which beams electricity to the battery through an invisible magnetic field.

"That's kind of how it should be," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during a splashy launch event in Los Angeles last night. "It's really high time we did this."

For the first time, Musk has made wireless charging—or inductive charging, as he referred to it—a core tenet of Tesla's future vehicles. That means no need to wrestle with an ugly, thick cord and heave it into the port. It's a nice-to-have convenience for today's EVs, but it will be a must-have for autonomous vehicles that lack a driver to do the heavy lifting.

Tesla could decouple the release of wireless charging pads from fully autonomous vehicles and offer it for its current lineup. It may need to, given the steep regulatory hurdles facing its robotaxis. Musk suggested it could get clearance to operate driverless systems in California and Texas in 2025, something multiple other automakers already have, and start production in 2026 or 2027.

That said, Musk admitted last night that he's been too "optimistic" on timelines in the past. And on YouTube, the event video begins with a disclosure: "Statements in this presentation are forward-looking statements...actual results may differ from those projected."

Wireless charging pads have far fewer hurdles to get to market than robotaxis, and Tesla has the chops to make it happen. In 2023, it bought Wiferon, a German wireless charging company. It quickly re-sold it but kept the engineering talent, according to Not a Tesla App.

Earlier this year, Cybertruck owners discovered a mention of inductive charging equipment in the vehicle's manual, InsideEVs reports. It's possible this could be the new standard build for future vehicles to make them compatible with a yet-to-be-released wireless charging product. Rival automakers are prototyping their own solutions; we powered up a Ford Mustang Mach-E with a pad built by Witricity.

That's why even though the robotaxi event was not supposed to be about wireless charging, it's my main takeaway from it. The rest was fluff, and irked investors with its vague promises, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Musk made it clear his product roadmap is driven by the desire to bring sci-fi movies to life, "the likes of which almost no one has envisioned." (He seems to be taking a page from Donald Trump's rhetorical style.) He named the event "We, Robot" in a nod to the movie I, Robot, and rented out Warner Bros. Studios, where the Cybercab drove through various Hollywood-themed zones, like Westworld and Metropolis.

"We have quite a show for you tonight, I think you're gonna like it," says Musk in his opening remarks, recalling his 2021 Saturday Night Live hosting gig. After showing a series of slides intended to convince the public that autonomous driving is worth the many years it will take to achieve it, he ended with, "Let's party!" as someone in the crowd shouted, "We love you, Elon!"

Humanoid "Teslabots" kicked off the festivities, dancing in a gazebo like go-go dancers and pouring drinks at the bar. Attendees took a spin in the Cybercab on a tightly controlled driving course throughout the 30-acre movie set, their first taste of what will likely be a multi-year, perhaps multi-decade wait for the real thing.