Electricity Transmitted to Auto Tire Through 10cm-thick Concrete

Interesting concept; but my thoughts immediately turn to the electrical infrastructure needed for this. Imagine the generating plants and transmission systems needed to power roadways full of automobiles.

 

Wasn't Soljacic at MIT claiming to transmit this much power 200 cm five years ago? Albeit through air, not concrete, with lower efficiency.

The 100x power increase is essential.

I need to see independent verification.

Is 20cm enough? Our roads are thick to support heavy trucks, and coupling efficiency drops off sharply with distance.

 

I see no real future for this technology. People have talked about it for years but it's monumentally expensive. Not only would it require ripping up infrastructure to put this in place but increase ongoing costs as well. So few people drive EV cars or will in the near future that this would never gain traction, not for many years, and by then battery capacity should be even better.

It just seems a kind of pointless technology except in esoteric situations to me.

It's hard to predict what we'll be doing in 20 years, but still...

 

That this can be done is no mystery. Just a bad idea, cost aside. People are concerned about EM radiation form household appliances, which is at so low intensity you probably could even light a small LED. Now a scenario with 10^6 more power? That presents a serious potential for personal injury. No mumbo jumbo.

SPH-D700 ? 2

 

Actually, I see two potentials. Of course, extending range on BEVs would be an awesome accomplishment.

More importantly, you could lay this in a designated lane of a freeway for... Freeway Autopilot!

After all, the car would have to track the power pretty reliably to get best benefit from it. Between lane-keep and a detectable wire under the freeway, and adaptive cruise control, you could set it and forget it for miles and miles.

Also, vehicle capable of using this power would naturally pay fees to pay for the construction, maintenance and powering of these lanes. Some sort of computer tracking would also need to be in the system, watching for cars that pass over it with (and more critically for enforcement, without) the valid RFID.

I'm sure an automated system could cut a 2" hunk out of the freeway and lay a strip of fresh concrete on top of a cable at oh-dark-hundred every night/morning, without any closure beyond a temporary lane closure behind the machine. Probably paint something on it at the same time. Then perhaps line the freeways with solar panels to help reduce transmission loss, and charge extra for night-time use.

Initially the power required would be negligible. After all, very few vehicles will be equipped to use it. BEVs and plugin hybrids capable of freeway speeds on electrons could take advantage of it. A 'regular' hybrid like a non-plug-in Prius couldn't. More importantly, they would need to be equipped with the inductive system. Though for the hands-free driving, I suppose some cars could have the 'autopilot' system without using the wire for anything but a guide.

More importantly, in town, all those 'alternate fuel' buses could become automated electric trolleys without all the unsightly wires and rails. Follow a virtual 'rail' that gives its power, safe out of reach of errant feet, and stop for any kind of obstruction, and any stops where someone has pressed a wireless 'call' button. Taxis, too. Especially the eventual 'self driving' ones which will make owning your own car pointless.

 

Besides, think about it this way. Imagine back in the late 19th and early 20th century, if electric cars had won.

Even if we had discovered vast quantities of oil today that could power cars, there would be no way of pumping it out of the ground and processing it to meer current energy demands. Nothing would be in place to deliver fuel to all of those 'hypothetical' petroleum powered vehicles that would replace electric ones more 'cheaply'.