Tesla Owner Makes 'Solid Metal Snake' Self-Charging System That Elon Musk Promised (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Nearly two years ago, Elon Musk teased us with a robotic snake that would automatically plug-in and charge your Model S. Well, many months have passed and there has yet to be an official "solid metal snake" available for Tesla owners. So, one Tesla owner decided to make his own autonomous charging station, as spotted by Electrek, that will automatically guide the Model S's charging cable into the waiting receptacle with no human intervention required. The inventor Deepak Mital posted a video showing how it works, and while it's incredibly slow, it does work. Compared to the demo video of the system teased by Elon Musk last year, this version appears much less threatening. Mital calls it the "Evtron," which is controlled with a Raspberry Pi and swings from one side to another before sliding forward to make the connection with the car.

Comments

it swings from the side and moves forward

[frovingslosh]

The article states that it swings from the side and moves forward. But can it adjust up and down to find the charging plug precisely? I'm not being silly here, a Model S has considerable adjustment in the Z axis (driving low is great for feeling sporty and improving mileage, but riding higher can be important for protecting the batteries from speed bumps or other things that could cause serious problems). While you could tell the car to adjust to the highest setting whenever it gets home, I would rather see a snake that can just plug itself in no matter what the current car height is.