I'd rather have these Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml Solar panel roads... with an internal heating element, so they never get snow or ice covered Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
now all we need is for an ability to transmit the energy to the car to propel it. the roadway provides the energy!
I would think inductive transfer could work for this - not enough to fully power the car, but combine inductive power transfer with regenerative braking and such and you could GREATLY extend the natural range of a purely electric vehicle. This is the idea behind a lot of fuel cell designs - the problem is, fracking hydrogen out of a source (such as water) can tend to be rather energy consuming in itself, often resulting in a net energy loss rather than a gain.
We live in a world where satellites and microprocessors can tell us how to get anywhere we want to go, but Volvo believes the future of transportation lies with something much simpler: magnets. Yes, magnets. Volvo argues that magnets, unlike electronic transmission, are unfazed by poor weather conditions or obstacles in the road, so they can reliably guide vehicles along the road. It recently completed a research project to test the theory, using a road embedded with magnets and a vehicle outfitted with specialized sensors to determine how accurately and reliably the car could discern its position. Volvo tested its theory at its test grounds in Hällered, Sweden. One of the biggest challenges was developing sensors capable of receiving data while speeding over a small magnet. Engineers calculated that a car traveling just over 90 mph would need a sampling rate of at least 400 readings per second. Typical magnetic sensors can only handle about three samples per second and need to be within centimeters of the magnet they’re detecting. So Volvo built a rig with five sensor modules made up of 15 total smaller modules of Honeywell HMC1053 magnetoresistive sensors, all of which sent information to a single circuit board. The setup was good for up to 500 readings per second, making it fast enough to handle high-speed driving. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...iYHgCA&usg=AFQjCNEvZTjfSZDd9MPKjlGC5kz88xnbPg
