In my opinion, Tesla thought it could be worked out because in his day, the amount of power we now consume was beyond even his imagination.
He viewed the immense power of Niagara to greatly exceed any power we would ever want. In those parameters, the losses were not as important.
Today’s world is far different.
The technology works. It is in use and companies have expanded well past the phone charger on a plate. But physics have not changed, and the losses are still immense.
For more info:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid/can-energous-deliver-on-wireless-power-promises
Governments at all levels have intense fetishes in maximizing the energy efficiency (minimizing losses) of our homes and autos, usually to the detriment of the consumer (vastly higher capital cost, higher maintenance costs, poor reliability, poor performance, early obsolescence). They will sink their regulatory hooks into wireless energy transmission before it gets launched because of inherent high losses and “health effects.”