Cited on HN 3 times, 2017–2020, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Cited as the definitive engineering takedown of uBeam and as a cautionary example of hype-driven startups.
Dave Jones of EEVblog debunks the uBeam ultrasonic wireless phone charging technology and explains why it is not practical. He covers efficiency, coupling loss and safety, and responds to the founder's remarks about engineers.
“Dave from EEVBlog has a couple of great videos about the uBeam scam, they're well worth watching” (HN, 2018)
Dave Jones from EEVBlog made a debunking video on uBeam. They apparently tried to to do ultrasonic wireless charging, which seems to fit your description. Here's the video, it's mostly about efficiency/coupling loss (beam forming has it's limits) and IIRC also about being potentially harmful for humans: [this video]
Debunking video covering coupling loss and human safety concerns
Here's Dave Jones ripping into it pretty hard. [this video] The talk by the uBeam CEO he links is also pretty infuriating. [link] Her core hypothesis that experts can often get stuck "inside the box" is certainly valid, but on the other hand "I sat down and solved complex engineering problems in a few minutes with pencil and paper" (almost an exact quote from the talk) is just plain dumb. Not to mention the not subtle implication that good engineers are all socially retarded...
Clever move, get out before the indictments land when investors figure out they've been had. uBeam's been completely full of shit from day one, and Perry is every bit as deceptive and deluded as Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes. Dave from EEVBlog has a couple of great videos about the uBeam scam, they're well worth watching: [this video] [link]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
3 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.