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© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.New technology installed beneath Detroit street can charge electric vehicles as they drive
By COREY WILLIAMS DETROIT©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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factchecker
Most cities once commonly had electric powered vehicles in the street, trams and/or trolleybuses. Any city that abolished them was stupid. The wiring could be going towards charging cars as well today.
runner3
People who are anti EV have their heads buried in the ground.
Sven Asai
As for me, I wouldn't declare such an old and known physical effect or retried attempt as a (new) technology. The energy losses are enormous, my guess. Neither creation of the needed infrastructure nor its continuous operation make any sense, energetically and ecologically.
kohakuebisu
I thought Henry Ford and other car makers bought them and closed them down.
Harry_Gatto
How exactly does an electric vehicle idle?
kurisupisu
This is the future of EVs and will be the technology for urban transport that will replace charging stations in cities
Skeptical
This might have been more impressive, were it not for the fact that it was brought by, and installed by, and doubtless will be maintained by, a state agency that has a long-standing reputation for not being capable of filling potholes.
WA4TKG
Well, that’s great. Let’s all move to Detroit, just remember to bring your favorite sub-machine gun with you….you’ll need it,
Hervé L'Eisa
As anyone who has actually studied any physics or electrophysics can attest, the losses from such a system are enormous.
That aside, the cost of infrastructure are astronomical.
Moreover, where pray tell would the source of electricity (with 30 %and greater losses) come from? Fossil fuels or atomic power are the only reliable & consistent sources of the required electricity, which quickly defeat the purpose.
There's a logical reason that the electric cars of the early 20th century were quickly cast aside in favor of Internal Combustion Engines : they are more reliable and cost-effective!
1glenn
In the USA, a consortium consisting of mostly Standard Oil, General Motors, and Firestone Tire bought up over 50 light rail systems, and then shut them down. They were "successfully" sued in court, where the US Supreme Court found them guilty, and fined them $5,000. Five thousand dollars, for destroying most of the light rail infrastructure in the USA. The new light rail system being built in Los Angeles has been costing about a billion dollars a mile to construct, for comparison.
I remember the light rail system that ran in Southern California. From San Bernardino to San Pedro, from Oxnard to Orange County, it was the largest transit system of its kind in the world, with the most ridership in the world. Apologists like to say that Californians lost interest in light rail, and fell in love with the freeway system, but really, they weren't given a choice.
BTW, it wasn't Henry Ford, but General Motors that took part in buying up the transit systems.
1glenn
I am curious......if the magnetic field around high tension wires that deliver electricity are bad for human health, would the magnetic field around an electrified road not also have dangers to health?
Skeptical
For readers interested in what happened to the National City Lines, and the decline and fall of the LA streetcars, and how the principal investors in National City Lines "engaged in an “aggressive campaign” to sell public transportation equipment to companies that were otherwise reluctant to purchase it," I would recommend an excellent writeup, entitled Did a conspiracy really destroy LA’s huge streetcar system? (https://la.curbed.com/2017/9/20/16340038/los-angeles-streetcar-conspiracy-theory-general-motors). Not nearly as interesting or sensational, but then again, reality often is.
TaiwanIsNotChina
They didn't have Li ion batteries in the early 20th century. The break-even point for an electric vehicle in the US, everything included, is about after two years of driving. After that it is superior to an ICE for the climate.
starpunk
Great idea, now expand it to the entire USA. I for one am sick of my fellow post-Cold War veterans fighting and suffering for oil. Since 1990 that's what most of our wars have been about and I am SICK of it.