WEBVTT - Charging Electric Vehicles in Motion

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<v Speaker 1>In late October, the Economists published an article titled it

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<v Speaker 1>is now practical to refuel electric vehicles through thin air?

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<v Speaker 1>How is that possible? I'm Jonathan Strickland, and this is

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<v Speaker 1>tech Stuff Daily. One of the challenges facing electric vehicle

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<v Speaker 1>manufacturers is the public perception that battery power goes hand

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<v Speaker 1>in hand with limitations, specifically in the form of travel

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<v Speaker 1>distance on a single charge. If you've got a battery

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<v Speaker 1>full of juice and take off on a road trip,

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<v Speaker 1>what happens when you start creeping up on that last

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<v Speaker 1>bit of energy left in the battery. You might find

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<v Speaker 1>a charging station, but how long will it take you

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<v Speaker 1>to get your battery back up to speed. Gas powered

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<v Speaker 1>vehicles are easy to refuel. It takes a few minutes

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<v Speaker 1>and then you're back on the road, But most electric

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<v Speaker 1>vehicles require hours of recharging. That's not a big deal

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<v Speaker 1>if you're using your car for basic commutes and you

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<v Speaker 1>can recharge at the end of each day, But for

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<v Speaker 1>road trips, what are your solutions? One route is to

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<v Speaker 1>create fast charging stations. Tesla, which helped propel electric vehicles

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<v Speaker 1>into the mainstream consciousness, touts its supercharger stations as the

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<v Speaker 1>world's fastest. According to the company, you can get your

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<v Speaker 1>vehicle up to a full charge in just half an

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<v Speaker 1>hour using a supercharge station. Tesla has even created a

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<v Speaker 1>program in which Models and Model X owners get credits

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<v Speaker 1>equivalent to a thousand miles of travel on supercharge refills

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<v Speaker 1>every year. The company also states that if you were

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<v Speaker 1>to use up all your credits in a year, you'd

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<v Speaker 1>still only pay a fraction of the cost of filling

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<v Speaker 1>up a tank of gas at a supercharging station. Still,

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<v Speaker 1>half an hour of white time is too long for

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<v Speaker 1>some people, and the only other option is to swap

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<v Speaker 1>out batteries in some sort of pit stop. Right, not quite.

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<v Speaker 1>There's another solution that doesn't require cables or supercharging stations,

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<v Speaker 1>and the right implementation, it doesn't even require a driver

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<v Speaker 1>to stop his or her vehicle to charge. The secret

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<v Speaker 1>to this sorcery is inductive coupling. The idea is not new.

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<v Speaker 1>Michael Faraday got the basic idea back in the mid

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<v Speaker 1>nineteenth century. It all has to do with electromagnetism. Basically,

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<v Speaker 1>the relationship goes like this. If you take a conductive

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<v Speaker 1>material such as some insulated copper wire, and you move

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<v Speaker 1>that material through a magnetic field. The magnetic field will

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<v Speaker 1>induce a current to flow through the copper wire. To

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<v Speaker 1>make this a persistent effect, you either must continuously move

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<v Speaker 1>the copper wire in and out of the magnetic field,

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<v Speaker 1>or cause the magnetic field itself to fluctuate. In other words,

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<v Speaker 1>a steady magnetic field will only induce current to flow

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<v Speaker 1>through a conductor when the conductor initially enters that field.

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<v Speaker 1>There are different ways to cause a magnetic field to fluctuate.

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<v Speaker 1>One is to use an electro magnet with an alternating current.

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<v Speaker 1>Electromagnets generally consist of a conductive material, such as copper

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<v Speaker 1>wrapped around a fare right core. You may have made

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<v Speaker 1>a basic electro magnet in class by wrapping a copper

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<v Speaker 1>wire around an iron nail. Running a current through the

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<v Speaker 1>copper wire by attaching it to a battery turns it

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<v Speaker 1>into a magnet. Batteries provide direct current. However, if you

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<v Speaker 1>attach an electromagnet to a source of alternating current, the

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<v Speaker 1>electricity will flow one direction in the wire before reversing

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<v Speaker 1>and going the other direction. It will do this thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of times per second. The magnetic field will change as

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<v Speaker 1>the direction of electricity flow changes. While you have yourself

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<v Speaker 1>a fluctuating magnetic field. Now, imagine you take a bunch

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<v Speaker 1>of conductive copper wire and you create a pad that

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<v Speaker 1>can go on the bottom of an electric vehicle. When

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<v Speaker 1>that copper wire encounters a fluctuating magnetic field, it will

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<v Speaker 1>cause current to flow through the wire. Attach that wire

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<v Speaker 1>to your electric vehicles battery system, and the battery can

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<v Speaker 1>store that electricity. Generally speaking, the way this could work

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<v Speaker 1>for cars requires a lot of work. You need to

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<v Speaker 1>install the electro magnets and power systems under the surface

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<v Speaker 1>of the street. That usually means digging up existing streets

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<v Speaker 1>to lay down the technology and cover it back up

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<v Speaker 1>with asphalt. A basic implementation of this technology might only

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<v Speaker 1>exist at intersections or special parking spaces where a car

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<v Speaker 1>could spend some time idle. Any vehicle outfited with the

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<v Speaker 1>proper charging apparatus could benefit from such a system. This

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<v Speaker 1>would extend the range of any electric vehicle. If you

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to make your system to work with cars that

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<v Speaker 1>are actually in motion, you need to cover a lot

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<v Speaker 1>more ground. A car traveling at a good speed won't

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<v Speaker 1>spend enough time over any small segment like an intersection

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<v Speaker 1>to benefit very much. Instead, you need to outfit hundreds

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<v Speaker 1>of feet of street with these electro magnets so that

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<v Speaker 1>the electric vehicles traveling down the stretch could get enough

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<v Speaker 1>of a jolt of juice to make a difference. There

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<v Speaker 1>are some big barriers to implementing this sort of strategy,

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<v Speaker 1>namely time and money. Road construction can take a long

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<v Speaker 1>time and tends to be extremely disruptive while it's happening,

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<v Speaker 1>and it isn't necessarily the cheapest of activities, But once installed,

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<v Speaker 1>such an infrastructure could be an enormous benefit to electric

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<v Speaker 1>vehicle drivers. We may see these systems put in place

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<v Speaker 1>in a few different parts of the world. There are

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<v Speaker 1>research projects in Israel and France that are exploring opportunities

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<v Speaker 1>that would allow electric vehicle drivers to charge on the go.

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<v Speaker 1>Stationary solutions are popping up as well. They might require

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<v Speaker 1>someone to stop for a few minutes over a specific

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<v Speaker 1>stretch of pavement, but that is still more convenient than

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<v Speaker 1>having to plug a vehicle in with a physical cable.

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<v Speaker 1>This coupling strategy is an effective way to transmit power

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<v Speaker 1>over short distances, but even relying upon advanced technologies that

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<v Speaker 1>pair resonating components to boost efficiency and range, there are

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<v Speaker 1>limitations to this approach. We're not likely to see Nicola

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<v Speaker 1>Tesla inspired towers broadcasting power across miles. It's just not

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<v Speaker 1>a practical or efficient means to transmit power. But it

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<v Speaker 1>might end up removing one of the reservations some people

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<v Speaker 1>have about electric vehicles. To learn more about electro magnets,

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<v Speaker 1>electric cars, and all things technological, subscribe to the tech

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff podcast. We explore tech in greater detail. Over there,

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<v Speaker 1>I'll see you against him.