Charging Towards The Future
I don’t know about your city, but if my town gets any more electric vehicles there will be a noticeable drop in street noise. The traffic cops drive electric tricycles, municipal workers zip around in Priuses, the taxis are being replaced by new hybrids, and now there is to be a pilot program for electric buses. Electrically-powered fleets are taking over the streets faster than I ever imagined they would.
To keep them all running in the future we’ll need fewer gas stations (one was recently turned into an art installation), and more places to get a charge. Digital Trends describes wireless chargers that one company plans to install in the streets. They work by resonance so you only need park over them. The business model behind the electricity served up that way isn’t clear to me, but it’s certain that we can expect this kind of innovation to become an increasingly common part of the urban landscape.
If we can charge a car this way, how much easier to top up a laptop, tablet or cell phone? And with power readily at hand, oozing from the gutters, what other appliances could be powered up? Combine a shopping cart with GPS, connectivity to the internet-of-things and ready power on the street, and in a couple of years dinner will be delivering itself.
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