This is never going to be worth the investment. What is needed is more charging stations at rest stops, and points of interest off the highway. People can stop and top up their battery while they use the restroom, get some food, stretch their legs, etc.
Worth the investment how? Traditional ROI? No, it won’t be. Encouraging adoption of EVs and reducing emissions? Quite possibly. There’s a concept called “Social ROI” that includes outside effects like that
I’m talking efficiency of the tech compared to standard chargers where everyone will have to park eventually, grocery stores, rest stops, hair salons, etc.
I’m not against spending money like this, my concern is that it’s a waste of money that could be going to something else. Not to mention that cars on the road now aren’t designed to take a charge while moving. Wireless charging in charging spots like places in Europe sure, that makes a lot more sense, but this makes no sense if you actually understand the tech needed to make this work.
If the state is funding the project and and usage is covered by taxes, this could realistically be the future of individual transportation and widespread EV adoption, while also eliminating the need for charging depots. Where I could see this fall on its face is squabbling over how people pay for usage, and then consumers getting charged through the nose. But implemented properly in a public-minded way, this could be huge.
When I read the headline my immediate thought was “roads now have subscription services” and the most upsetting part of that is that I wasn’t even surprised.
Maybe reduce the highway from 12 to 8 lanes and build a train line in the middle that can “charge” moving trains.
As an Indiana resident, the vast, vast majority of our highways and interstates are two lanes each direction.
Also, the vast majority of Indiana residents would not know how to use a train. May not even know what it is.
Oh, we all know what trains are. They come through our towns constantly. Unfortunately, usually only carrying freight. But Amtrak does have a line going through Indianapolis and there is a commuter line running through a lot of northern Indiana, so it’s not as dire as it could be.
It needs to be far better though.
Idk about the middle unless they can make it more convenient than Chicago’s passenger rail system. Sometimes you’ve gotta do this ridiculously long detour to cross the pedestrian bridge because they put transit stops in the middle of the highway. Like sorry but a highway is not a destination.
This has got to be about the least efficient way to charge a car. Are the going to put solar panels in the road to power the wireless car chargers so they can waste even more money?
It’s not to charge it, but to power it in such a way that it doesn’t deplete the battery, especially on long distance trips. You’d obviously still need a battery for surface streets that aren’t retrofitted, or for driveways, parking lots drive thrus, etc, but this could possibly negate the need for all of these charging stations everywhere. Hell if enough cars have those undercarriage receivers as on the article, charging your car could be as simple as parking over a stationary coil, no cord needed.
Wireless charging isn’t the most efficient in the best of conditions. The efficiency drops off rapidly as the distance between the coils is increased. The coils will have to be far enough under the road that they won’t be destroyed by traffic and far enough off the ground to not get ripped off the car. Using wireless charging for something that requires 10’s of kWh per charge is a terrible idea and will waste massive amounts of power. It’s an even worse idea for stationary charging. People shouldn’t be wasting all that power because the are too damn lazy to plug a cord in.
I like the idea of just having a U-Haul-type system with battery trailers. Stop in, hitch up, do long-haul trip, drop off battery trailer.
solar roadways vibes on this one
