Tesla's $300 Wireless Charging Platform brings Apple's AirPower concept back from the dead
Known for very carefully preparing all of its products before bringing them to market and rigorously testing every groundbreaking new technology and feature ahead of any official announcement, Apple famously botched the much-hyped AirPower a few years ago, formally unveiling the revolutionary wireless charging mat in 2017 and then unceremoniously cancelling its release in 2019.
Of course, many companies did manage to release many different wireless charging accessories since then (and even well before that time), but no such product was 100 percent successful in reliably (and rapidly) delivering juice to three devices simultaneously regardless of their positioning.
Believe it or not, that's where Tesla comes in today, with an aptly named and excessively priced Wireless Charging Platform scheduled (at least for the time being) to start shipping in a couple of months.
Before you even think it, no, we don't believe this signals seriousness on CEO Elon Musk's part regarding recent "alternative phone" threats directed at Apple and Google. After all, Tesla has been experimenting with various in-house charging accessory designs for a number of years, and this feels (more or less) like a natural evolution of those past products.
Inspired by the love-it-or-hate-it Cybertruck design and priced at a whopping $300, the Wireless Charging Platform is without a doubt the most ambitious such "experiment" to date, and in order to pull off a tricky 3-in-1 charger sans designated slots for each device, Tesla appears to have enlisted the help of a little company called Aira.
Founded in 2017, Aira developed a technology called FreePower precisely for third-party products like the Tesla Wireless Charging Platform, but of course, it remains to be seen how everything will actually work in real life starting February 2023.
In theory, this bad boy sounds, well, pretty much as powerful, versatile, and handy as the ill-fated Apple AirPower, aiming to provide 15W charging speeds to each of three Qi-supporting devices you'll be able to place anywhere on the "platform's" premium alcantara surface.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you'll be able to wirelessly charge three phones at the same time, and non-Qi-capable smartwatches are apparently out of the equation completely. That leaves you with two handsets and a pair of true wireless earbuds (at most) that you can place on the Tesla Wireless Charging Platform without worrying about correct alignment and things like that, which is still pretty good... if it ends up working as advertised... and you don't mind spending three Benjamins on this sort of accessory.
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