The US state of Michigan has built the US's first wireless electric car charging street in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood.
The company Electreon placed copper inductively charged coils under the surface of a street in Detroit, USA. The coils will charge electric cars equipped with Electreon receivers as they drive down the road.
The charging sections of the road transfer electricity wirelessly through a magnetic field, which is then transferred as energy to the battery of the vehicle, charging it. The Detroit Wireless Charging Road is a pilot program that will test and aim to perfect the technology wireless charging in a real environment. The researchers use a Ford E-Transit electric van equipped with an Electreon receiver.
The plan is to open road wireless charging to the public in the coming years. MDOT and Electreon have made a five-year commitment to develop and pilot the electric road system on Michigan roads.
The pilot construction spans four hundred meters on 14th Street between Marantette and Dalzelle Streets in Detroit's historic Corktown. It runs alongside the Newlab in the Michigan Central Building, home to more than 60 technology and mobility startups, where wireless charging technology will be further tested and developed in early 2024.
In 2024, MDOT will begin seeking bids to reconstruct part of Michigan Avenue (US-12) and install additional inductive charging.
Question one: Where is such pure copper for the coils to be found? Are we going to dig up the rest of the planet too... ?
Second question: What is the effect on human drivers who will drive for a long time - perhaps even daily - in a strong electromagnetic field?