Charge-As-You-Drive Electric Car Lanes Are Coming
Owning an electric car just got seriously more practical thanks to this UK project.
You guys, the future is here. The future that has been rendered so many times in Tom Cruise sci-fi movies and '90s music videos is finally here. Although Marty McFly is not the prophet we once believed him to be and the hoverboard is still only a prototype, a new UK-based project will let us have electric cars that charge via the road as they go.
Although electric cars in the UK are currently becoming more common, they can be tricky to charge if you live in a densely populated city and are bereft of a private parking garage. Electric cars can only be charged from home/special charging stations, so if you're an electric car owner with only on-street parking facilities, you might have to hang around for hours at designated charging spots. Annoying.
Enter charging lanes, to save the day. Highways England have announced an 18-month plan to trial the feasibility of charging lanes before bringing them to public roads. Charging lanes are exactly what they sound like — lanes that charge your electric car as you drive along it. How? With black magic, of course (or electric cables installed under the road surface which generate electromagnetic fields, funnelled into a coil in the car and converted into useable electricity). And a nice little bonus for eco-warriors driving electric cars is the ability to zip up a dedicated lane, charge your car and skip traffic all at once — no regular cars are allowed in this lane.
Charging lanes have already been implemented to great effect in South Korea, to charge electric buses in the public transport system, and — if the popularity of 'Gangnam Style' is anything to go by — it’s only a matter of time before electric charging lanes become standard across the world. We haven't been this excited about roads since this solar-powered genius.
Via Mashable.
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