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RUMOR: Ultrasonic charging

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markwj

Asia Pacific
Moderator
Apr 10, 2011
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Listening to episode #45 of the smoking tyre podcast, they were discussing the Model S, and the conversation veered towards a bar meeting between the host and an unnamed SpaceX employee. The employee was talking about a prototype wireless charging technology using ultrasonics being tested by Tesla for their supercharger network.

More here:

Are Tesla's Supercharging Stations Going Wireless? | The Smoking Tire

And a uBeam demo:

uBeam developing to enable wireless charging | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

OK, put aside the fact this is two guys drinking in a bar, and clearly marking this as an unsubstantiated rumor that might be fun to debunk, is this feasible? The uBeam company mentioned is definitely doing ultrasonic power transmission, but can this be scaled to fast charging type systems without either the energy loss being horrendous, or the car starting to glow red?