No, that's actually one of his few inventions that he actually ended up making and proving. At least, on a small scale. What he wanted to do was take that idea and make a worldwide electric system by just pumping electricity into the air and that's what never came to fruition. But he did do several demonstrations involving using tesla coils to turn out lightbulbs at a distance.
There are several companies developing this right now. It's not that it doesn't work its just that the cost is prohibitive at the moment. The goal is to make all appliances plug less. This also has many other possible adaptations including but not limited to, military exo-suit power, and electric cars powered by the very road they drive on.
He was a genius and gave mankind many important advances, but the idea of wirelessly transmitting electricity has been proven a pipe dream. The only way to transmit it is as lightning. If he could have seen that fact and moved on how much more good could he have done?
Really? You don't say? Explain the wireless cell phone charger on my nightstand then.
After you do that, you can explain the Japanese plan to build an orbiting solar farm to beam the power back down to Earth. A plan that the first operational prototype is projected to power about 300,000 homes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power
(And one that mentions that Tesla also achieved it)
http://powerbyproxi.com/wireless-power/
After you do that, you can explain the Japanese plan to build an orbiting solar farm to beam the power back down to Earth. A plan that the first operational prototype is projected to power about 300,000 homes.