There are currently about 1.8 million battery electric vehicles on US roads, and only about 100,000 charging sockets power them. But expanding such a network is not only costly, it comes with a variety of other logistical issues. This exacerbates what is known as “distance anxiety”; It is the fear that the car does not have enough power to reach its destination, and therefore may cut off its passengers. This constitutes one of the main obstacles to the widespread adoption of fully electric cars, thus freeing the environment from a large part of emissions. Researchers at Cornell University in the United States are developing a special way that can charge vehicle batteries while driving on them. It is a bright vision of a future in which drivers are no longer tied to individual electric charging stations. This allows them to travel while charging their car batteries at the same time. The researchers say this wireless charging route could do wonders in fostering a growing industry suffering from said “distance anxiety.”
Special Charging Routes
Khurram said Afridi, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering: “Highways will have their own charging lanes as with today’s high-vehicle lanes, for example. When the battery is about to run out, the driver will move to the charging lane. The road will be able to identify the vehicle that has entered the lane, and send To the owner of the bill later.”
This road works thanks to special metal plates at the bottom connected to a power line and a transformer. The plates generate electric fields that can charge a car battery as it passes over plate after plate.
About the physical principle the system operates on, Afridi said: “Wireless power transmission relies on the same basic physics used to send messages via radio waves. to spacecraft in deep space, with the difference that we are now sending more energy over much shorter distances to moving vehicles.” In other words, the same frequencies used in space communications can be used to transmit power to vehicles over short distances. As of now, Afridi and his team have created a prototype that can operate vehicles from a distance of 18 cm based on this principle.
In any case, the future of such technology is uncertain. Because transforming existing roads would require sabotaging them to build key infrastructure. However, it is an interesting vision, because it may be one of the only options available.
Source: futurism.com
