"embedded in the paving" is where my mind wondered a while back after listening to a podcast on "Parking". Sounds boring, but it was actually an interesting take on something you might not give much thought to. One thing that stood out to me in the podcast was the talk of EV's joining in to the parking discussion, and specifically the up hill battle many city residents have with being able to charge their cars at their own homes. I myself never really thought much about it because it would be a simple charger installed in my garage parking space. However, a lot of home owners/renters only option for parking is along the curb in front of their home. Then I started thinking that a charging post at each curb stall would be quite ugly. .....I wonder if the wireless charging capabilities, embedding in the pavement, could be a solution?I didn’t think about how many people suck at parking! That’s a great point. These articles are like puzzle pieces and clues. Although many automotive innovations and experiments never get off the drawing board. I wonder though if some sort of wireless charging might be good for say an entire parking lot. ICE cars and EVs (that accept wireless) wouldn’t have to compete for spaces. It seems that it might even be more reliable. I have gone to many public charging stations that have broken plugs, cables, main screens, whatever…. If it were embedded in the paving it might not suffer the same wear and tear. I dunno
The "have you watched people park?" @Chaparral mentioned above is a great point too! I few ideas to throw at that to overcome this issue:
- The embedded port in the pavement is smooth and flush (no actual plug in) and contains alignment magnets
- The EV pulling over this port has a downward facing camera that comes on in parking mode. The camera view has alignment cross hairs, which turn green when the vehicle is close enough.
- Upon putting the car in park, the charging cord on the underside of the vehicle extends downward, but has some flexibility back and forth due to hanging down from a single charging cable.
- The magnets from both port ends finalize the needed alignment for a solid connection.