Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles big and small as they drive
Posted by TylerFortier_Photo@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 30 comments
hi_im_bored13@reddit
car manufacturers can’t even figure out how to wireless charge my phone, generates so much heat and sometimes even loses battery. You think they’ll be able to charge a car wirelessly?
In all seriousness don’t see this working out, wired charging is considerably more efficient and it’s gotten quite quick, but I’d love to see them try.
T-Baaller@reddit
The best application would be transit or fleet depots that can have areas to "top up" batteries or charge the fleet with less human work needed.
Although given wireless charging's added heat, maybe there's a fire risk..
Clover-kun@reddit
At a fleet depot you can just use a pantograph to DC fast charge as needed if you're feeling really lazy, or just plug in like what they're already doing
hi_im_bored13@reddit
Can't imagine the cost & labor of maintaining such a system would be cheaper than just having someone plug it in.
I don't think there would be much fire risk, but at a smartphone scale, a wireless charger will use near 50% more power than charging through a cable. Now for a smartphone that only amounts to a dollar or two each year, but when you have a tesla semi or equivalent electric truck with a 900kWh battery, you're looking at 50-100$ lost in inefficiency which each charge.
Can't imagine companies are going to be willing to take that on. Would be cheaper to just hire a dedicated person to plug in the truck & watch it.
lee1026@reddit
Apple says they got current gen of iPhones to about 75% efficiency when charging wireless.
At something like a semi with 900kwh battery, you are looking at 200kwh per charge. At current industrial power rates of about 10 cents per kwh (Northeast US; your region may differ), you are looking at something like $20 per semi.
Unlikely to be that viable to hire a dude to do it.
hi_im_bored13@reddit
Worth noting apple is using permanent magnets in the charger & phone to perfectly align the coils.
That wouldn’t be the case here
mulletstation@reddit
Concrete shouldn't affect it at all, only thing is distance
lee1026@reddit
Guys, it is a test program between a university and a truck maker.
Someone’s gotta try new things once in a while.
peanutbuttahcups@reddit
Another example of why it's important to Read The Fucking Article (RTFA).
But yeah, research is very important. Let the universities and researchers do their thing. Even if something doesn't pan out, any data collected is still useful data for the next researcher.
16Vslave@reddit
Not even that, im from NJ....They tax the shit out of the whole state for various things....most of our roads across the state are shit, some of that falls on the local municipalities. But I would expect no upkeep or fixing to be done on the roads
motorcitydevil@reddit
It’s a misnomer that wireless charging isn’t as efficient as plugging in. Witricity has been developing wireless charging solutions since 2012 and have written extensively on the topic.
As for the road, it’s my understanding that it won’t charge, but maintain. So if you’re at 12 miles of range left and come across a wireless charging stretch of highway, you’ll come out of it with 12 miles of range when back on normal pavement.
2Drogdar2Furious@reddit
Dont forget the cancer. More cancer cant be good...
Miss_South_Carolina@reddit
I am sure riding above strong magnetic fields is going to yield great results on the human body.
GinNTonic1@reddit
What is this going to do to my balls?
turniphat@reddit
I can't wait until we are all driving full size slot cars.
NightKnown405@reddit
I would love to see more details about this. At this point I am quite skeptical of the concept for a number of reasons. Any magnetic field strong enough to excite a coil on the vehicle sufficient to induce enough energy to be useful would demand more energy to continue moving the vehicle away from it. This magnetic field would likely cause a cogging effect unless it is perfectly timed to propel the vehicle as well as develop a charging current. In essence I'm stuck at trying to imagine a linear motor that is also generating power in the vehicle. While at the same time not creating an inductive heating of the rest of the components in the vehicle and generating enough EMI that could cause all kinds of mayhem in other vehicle circuits.
Clem573@reddit
Why??
I mean, the average car battery can drive 2,5 hours of motorway on a charge, which is the recommended driving time before human driver attention starts dropping ; if they want a high tech concrete, put a “solar panel concrete” on the whole motorway to charge the cars at the resting area?
knowledgeable_diablo@reddit
I’m sure this could be sorted in theory, but who’ll be paying for all this power? and what level of back end access will the police want in the case they are chasing someone who would then have theoretical unlimited power top up allowing extended police chases? And in the event of some major traffic incident, is the ground source of power able to be isolated to ensure first responders aren’t BBQed by the several thousand volts required to charge up the vehicles on the run?
Just a few items that popped into my head with out thinking to much so I’d think there would be hundreds of other known and unknown and totally unexpected concequences to allowing wireless on the move vehicle charging. But I can also see how on paper and in a fully utopian society this would read as an awesome idea worthy of serious study and investment.
Due_Signature_5497@reddit
“You’re basically driving for free”. Yeah, how long will that last.
twosnailsnocats@reddit
NetZero 2.0
Hop-Dizzle-Drizzle@reddit
Heavy_Gap_5047@reddit
Why don't we just put windmills on cars to power them. /s
Drzhivago138@reddit
Prairie schooners are back!
saraphilipp@reddit
Hahahaha you dumb bastard, it's not a schooner it's a sailboat.
BrendanKwapis@reddit
LOL
notnot_athrowaway2@reddit
Goddamn stop wasting resources on this shit. It makes zero economic sense.
soggycookie11@reddit
These guys would be smart to work with Tesla. Here’s their new patent on wireless charging for a vehicle for anyone who lives under a rock: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2024182372
Ernie_Capadino@reddit
F-Zero, guys. They’re hoping they can build F-Zero
Dazzling-Rooster2103@reddit
Solar freaking roadways 2.0.
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