- Tesla wants to build special Supercharger stations for its Robotaxi fleet.
- The driverless EVs are being plugged in manually “for now,” said Tesla’s head of charging for North America.
- Further down the road, we might see automatic stations where cars no longer need people to plug them in.
Max de Zegher, who runs Tesla’s North American Charging unit, said that the company is building dedicated stations that will serve its growing fleet of Robotaxis. For now, the driverless cabs are using public Supercharger stations, where they’re usually topped up at night by a human operator.
“They’re plugged in manually, but that’s just for now,” said Max de Zegher, hinting that future Robotaxi Superchargers will do without human operators who plug in the cars. That said, he didn’t elaborate on how the robotaxis will be automatically set up for charging, and Tesla hasn’t exactly followed through with its decade-old idea of a robotic charging arm.
When it comes to the new Cybercab, the key might be wireless charging. Back in 2024, when the gold-colored two-door EV was unveiled, Tesla said it would only support wireless charging, which makes a lot of sense for a world where nobody drives anymore, and the cars can position themselves over inductive charging pads while they wait for customers to hail a cab.
In a video released in October 2024, a Cybercab is shown wirelessly charging at up to 25 kilowatts, which is anything but fast by today’s standards. However, according to documents filed with the Environmental Protection Agency, the steering-wheel-less EV’s battery capacity is just 48 kilowatt-hours, which means a two-hour charging session should be enough for a full charge–at least in theory.
Gallery: Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi
The upcoming Robotaxi-specific Superchargers will be built in areas where demand is high, the land is cheap, and capital expenditures can be kept in check. To successfully scale its Robotaxi business, cabs need to be able to do back-to-back charging sessions, maximizing the sites’ utilization rates.
Until that happens, the driverless Model Ys and Cybercabs will keep using public Superchargers, none of which offer wireless pads. Max de Zegher said cars with passengers have priority when charging, and that the same Trip Planner fundamentals that power the active navigation systems on all Teslas are being used to dispatch robotaxis to chargers.
