An electrifying drive through England
Engineers everywhere in the world are working on the car of the future. How that vehicle will look is still unclear. Several new energy sources could replace the traditional gasoline engine. The main candidates are currently electricity and hydrogen, but other alternatives are also possible. The technology is changing rapidly and the coming of energy sources about which we are not currently thinking could be much faster than generally expected. But the use of other energy sources could mean that we also have to develop the roads we use now differently. The car of the future will no doubt be high tech, but the roads of the future will also be different from the roads we know today. We are in fact talking also about nothing less or more than high tech roads.
An interesting British project
Highways England has started an interesting experiment to make our roads not only high tech but also more environmentally friendly. In this experiment scientists are examining whether or not it is possible to fuel cars directly on the road. That would mean the range of a car in the future will no longer depend on the content of the fuel tank or on the power of the battery. It sounds like a dream: a driving car will simply recharge itself. Highways England is an organization wholly owned by the British State and thus it can count on the support of the Government. If everything turns out well, the test phase with the experimental roads will start sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. The experiment will initially last 18 months, but may be extended in the case of success. Motorways which are able to recharge the vehicles driving on them are obviously much better for the environment because emissions are limited to a minimum.
Not good news for Tesla
Mike Wilson, chief engineer at Highways England, explains how the system works. A network of cables and wires will be built in the surface of the roads. Specially equipped vehicles will be able to use that network to recharge their batteries while driving. For the time being the experiment is limited to a small number of participants. In the case of success, however, it could be extended to public roads, providing that there are of course enough electric cars available to participate in the experiment. The project of Highways England is not good news for Tesla. The pioneer in the field of electric cars would have to deal with a competitor that does not depend on batteries. And being independent of batteries is of course a big advantage.
