Wireless Car Charger Test Starts In London 118
judgecorp writes "A test of wireless chargers for electric vehicles has started in London. The Halo system owned by Qualcomm is one of several competing technologies designed to deliver power to charge car batteries without having to plug the vehicles in. At this stage, Qualcomm is apparently worried about frying cats."
What % of electricity is lost compare to a wire? (Score:5, Interesting)
Wires are not the issue. (Score:5, Interesting)
For me they seem like they are trying to solve the wrong problem. For the Electric Car, it is having locations where we can plug in the wire, which is the same as having locations to park your wireless charger. Will work pay the power bill if you park your car at work and plug it in or wireless charge it? Probably Not.
The big problem is infrastructure, not pushing a button and plugging in a big wire. Besides if the goal with electric cars is to be green, why waste so much power on transferring it wirelessly?
Re:What % of electricity is lost compare to a wire (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead of wirelessly. The car should have below the bumper at regulation height, a set of plugs, that allow to pivot up to 30 degrees and slide left and right a few cm. when it parks, it slides into a set of grooves with triangle guides on the corner, that will power the car. Once contact is made the car does a full stop, and will only go in reverse, until unplugged.
More power efficient, minimum loss of user friendless, easy to install, no fried animals, kids, or stupid adults.
Qualcomm as a technology investor (Score:5, Interesting)
The most interesting aspect of the article was reading that Qualcomm regularly invests in technology that may not pay back for 10 years.
Nice to see a company that is looking long term rather than maximizing the profits for this quarter.
myke
Re:Health effects? (Score:4, Interesting)
"All that energy" is in the form of a time-varying magnetic field. The effects are well-known: electrical currents (eddy currents [wikipedia.org]) are induced in nearby conductive objects. The bulk of the current (probably around 85%) is generated in the receiving pad and gets siphoned off to charge the car's battery; the rest goes to heating up other objects. Since magnetic fields fall off as the third power of distance, the only "other object" that's likely to see much temperature rise is the lower frame of the car, and the only testing that's needed is to make sure the heating is uniform rather than generating hot spots.