The Man Behind Tesla's Drive: Colin Campbell Joins Redwood Materials as CTO

August 22, 2023

By Kevin Armstrong

Former Tesla VP, Colin Campbell joins Redwood Materials

Not a Tesla App

In a world often overshadowed by the larger-than-life presence of CEO Elon Musk, Tesla's success has been cultivated by an incredibly talented team of engineers, visionaries, and leaders. One of these key players, Colin Campbell, has announced his departure from the company after a remarkable 17-year tenure.

A Remarkable Journey

Starting with Tesla in 2006, Campbell rose from Traction Inverter Electrical Engineer to Vice President of Powertrain Engineering. His impactful journey is a testament to Tesla's emphasis on innovation and dedication, which has led the company from a small startup with an ambitious dream to a global leader in electric vehicles.

Perhaps best remembered for his announcement during Tesla's Investor Day in March that the next-generation powertrain would use zero rare earths (video below), Campbell's revelation sent ripples through the industry. His comments led to a plunge in the stocks of rare earth miners from China, signaling Tesla's unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability.

More Than Musk

Campbell's departure comes just two weeks after Tesla's CFO, Zach Kirkhorn, stepped down, emphasizing the importance of the entire team at Tesla. The company's growth and success isn't solely the product of Musk's vision; it results from dedicated professionals like Campbell and Kirkhorn, who embody Tesla's mission and values.

Colin Campbell's move to Redwood Materials, a company focusing on recycling lithium-ion batteries and creating a circular supply chain for electric vehicles, is less of a farewell and more of a continuation of a shared mission. Redwood was founded by JB Straubel, Tesla's co-founder and former CTO, who also recently returned to Tesla's Board of Directors, a connection that strengthens the bond between the two companies.

In a heartfelt post on LinkedIn, Campbell expressed his joy and privilege in working at Tesla and his fulfillment in making a global impact across many industries. Joining Redwood as Chief Technology Officer, he will still be focused on electrification, further enriching the collaborative environment between Tesla and Redwood.

Legacy and Future Collaboration

The continuous talent migration within the electric vehicle ecosystem reaffirms Tesla's far-reaching influence. While losing a seasoned executive might seem concerning, it is also an opportunity to recognize the company's depth and breadth of expertise. Tesla is not just about Elon Musk; it's about a collective effort, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of a sustainable future.

Campbell's time at Tesla may have ended, but his influence, legacy, and connection to the Tesla family continue. His move to Redwood Materials is more than a career transition; it's a strategic alignment that might hint at exciting collaborations shortly. In a constantly evolving industry, the community of pioneers like Campbell ensures that the drive toward clean energy remains unstoppable.

Campbell's journey from a budding engineer to a change-making executive exemplifies this spirit, reminding us that Tesla's magic results from many hands, hearts, and minds. His departure is a new beginning, not an end, and we look forward to seeing his continued impact on clean energy and electrification.

Tesla Files Patents for Wireless Charging the Robotaxi

September 9, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has filed four patents for wireless charging. Previously, Tesla acquired the experience and skills of Wiferion’s engineering team in an acquisition in June 2023. Tesla quickly sold off the company but kept the company’s engineers. This was an acqui-hire, where large companies rapidly onboard top talent by purchasing a company for human capital, rather than products, services, or intellectual products.

Following the Wiferion acquisition, Tesla showed off a wireless charging mat several times and even confirmed they are working on wireless inductive home charging. We expected this to arrive with the Cybertruck, but now we hope to see more details at the upcoming Robotaxi reveal event in October, at the Warner Bro.’s studio in Hollywood.

Wireless Charging Patents

First Patent

The first of the four patents looks at temperature sensors and applications for wireless charging. Tesla intends to track the temperatures across both the wireless charging pad, as well as the inductive charging coils in the vehicle. The third patent details how they’re planning to use this in an innovative way.

WIPO

Second Patent

The second patent is a shorting switch, which is designed to prevent or reduce leakage of energy to ground sources near the wireless charging mat. This shorting switch is used to create a short with the receiving side of the inductive charging, essentially making energy transfer faster and more efficient – while also reducing the amount of energy that is leaked out elsewhere. We’ll leave this one for the electrical engineers to explain in our forums.

Third Patent

The third patent is actually the wireless charging circuit itself, and how to manufacture it. This one is straightforward and explains how Tesla intends to design and build the prototype inductive wireless charging mats. Beyond the basic design, this document also details how Tesla intends to lay out the inductive charging coils and how it expects the entire assembly to function – which includes a small cable that runs to a wall-mounted energy source.

Fourth Patent

The final patent is for intelligently estimating and adapting to variations in wireless charging layouts and systems. This one is probably the most interesting of the four patents, as it involves adjusting the coils in the mat to dynamically account for the positioning of the vehicle, as well as responding to the information from the first patent – the temperature sensors.

Essentially, by varying the coil induction across the mat, Tesla intends to dynamically aim the wireless charger at different parts of the inductive coils in the vehicle, thereby reducing heat. This patent will also help Tesla to determine the adequate charge speed and other key information they may need to relay to the vehicle, or back to fleet management software.

Cybertruck Inductive Charging

While the Cybertruck never actually arrived with inductive charging, it was noted in the Service Manual to have 2 Inductive Charging Headers, so it is ready to be upgraded to have Inductive Charging support. We expect that Tesla will release this as a purchasable upgrade for the Cybertruck sometime in the future – likely as a package with the Inductive Charging Mat.

Robotaxi Inductive Charging

The Robotaxi will likely be the first of Tesla’s vehicles to feature inductive charging – which. makes sense given its autonomous nature. Plugging in a NACS charger will likely be fairly difficult to automate, and the 5-10% efficiency loss of wireless charging isn’t a huge deal. It’s possible Tesla chose this route due to cost, as having an automated NACS cable like the “snake” prototype we saw years ago could be costly.

Having a simple parking stall with an inductive mat on it, alongside all the tech and supplies needed to automatically clean and sanitize the Robotaxi makes far more sense. This means that a Robotaxi will be able to roll in, charge and clean itself, and then roll out to go pick up more customers. Tesla is planning a super-efficient system here that requires minimal intervention from real humans.

Essentially, by effectively managing the Robotaxi fleet, Tesla can offset the increased time that wireless charging would take, and also reduce the amount of waste energy by charging when energy is cheapest. While this could prevent Tesla from taking advantage of the sheer battery mass of a Robotaxi fleet – by selling power when it’s expensive and travel demand is low – this doesn’t make it impossible.

Smartphone manufacturers have demonstrated reverse wireless charging with the inductive charging coils already present in modern smartphones. We could see Tesla low-power bi-directional charging in the future too.

We’re looking forward to seeing Tesla unveil this at the upcoming Robotaxi event. It’ll be something special, for sure.

Tesla Adds Ability to Swipe Left and Right in Browser

September 9, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has made a spate of improvements to its vehicle software recently, starting with the big Spring Update, and then the Summer Update more recently. While we see most of the updates mentioned in the release notes, Tesla often also adds smaller quality-of-life improvements along the way.

Browser Controls

When using the Tesla Browser in the vehicle, you can now swipe left and right to go back or forward a page in your browser history. When you start swiping on the screen, Tesla’s Chromium-based browser will now display an arrow that slides out from the left or right. The circular icon is initially white, meaning that the action won’t be executed, but if you continue moving to the left/right, the icon will eventually turn blue. The blue icon means that the action will be executed once you let go of the screen.

This is a simple quality-of-life improvement that makes using the built-in browser easier.

We’re happy to see updates like these come to the browser, whose last major feature was the full-screen button that was added in update 2024.14.

Future Browser Improvements

While we’re on the topic, let’s look at some future Tesla web browser improvements we’d love to see.

Access to the Mic

Full access to the vehicle microphone isn’t allowed through the web browser right now. That means if you want to get into a Discord, Slack, or Teams call, you’ll only be able to listen – not speak. All of these apps fully function in the Tesla browser for sending messages, but are fairly limited for meetings.

Better Bookmarks

Tesla’s current bookmark system is simple and barebones. You can bookmark a page and give it a name. Once you visit a bookmarked page enough, it’ll show up as an icon in the center of the browser when you go to the homepage.

However, it's difficult to keep a larger set of bookmarks since there aren’t any organizational tools provided. A better bookmark system or the ability to sync bookmarks would be a welcomed feature.

Custom Homepage

Tesla’s current homepage in its browser is simply just a Tesla logo in black or white, depending on whether your car is in dark mode or not. A custom homepage that provides widgets with basic local news, stock information or other details would be fantastic. We’d ask for weather too, but the recent Summer update shows weather at the top of your screen.

If you’ve got more ideas for the fairly barebones Tesla web browser, let us know.