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The benefit is that it eliminates (perceived) range anxiety. People are used to filling up their cars at gas stations, and used to battery-powered devices 'dyin

The benefit is that it eliminates (perceived) range anxiety. People are used to filling up their cars at gas stations, and used to battery-powered devices 'dying' - an unfortunate label. Even if real-world use was a tiny fraction of miles traveled, I think people would be much more apt to buy electric if they knew that the cars could charge as they drive. You could implement it such that the car communicated with the road and was delivered a charge only if it was beyond a certain number of miles that day to reduce load on the network and incentivize overnight charging. Regarding high-speed rail, the whole point of driving your car to the destination is to have a car at the destination; high-speed rail where you arrive and have to walk is a non-starter for a lot of destinations right now. I agree that we should reduce the effective subsidy that heavy freight trucking currently benefits from so businesses are economically motivated to switch to more rail freight.

ashtonkem 7y ago
I get that range anxiety is an irrational fear, but I genuinely doubt that it’s why people don’t buy EVs. I suspect that resistance to change is a more common cause, with range anxiety being a convenient excuse. Besides, any solution to range anxiety has to be tuned to the social benefit it would generate. I’d be more a fan of simply making gasoline more expensive, since what we really need is not people using EVs, but people not using fossil fuels.
- turtlebits 7y ago
  Range anxiety is not an irrational fear. Even after 2 years of owning an EV (w/ 200+ range), range anxiety is present. Actually it's more like charge while not at home anxiety, as charging is still a crapshoot. - L1 charging is 3-4 miles / hour. - Charging infrastructure is horrendously unreliable. (non-Tesla). I don't do much outside charging, but in 40% of my experiences, chargers are often out of service, throw errors, or not maintained well. (I was at an popular Electrify america spot and 3 of 6 chargers were out of commission, 2 of them were like that for weeks)). - Charging is expensive. More expensive than gas, sometimes ripping you off. Session fees of $3 just for plugging in, plus 4x residential kwh rates.
- JaumeGreen 7y ago
  > I suspect that resistance to change is a more common cause, with range anxiety being a convenient excuse. In cities, in where lots of people don't have a personal parking space, there's the charging problem, just like now there's the parking problem. Some days I had to search for more than 30 minutes for a spot to park in. Add the charging requirement and I would feel anxious in less than a week.
Reason077 7y ago
> ”People are used to filling up their cars at gas stations” Yes, and EV drivers are used to charging up their cars at charging stations. Wireless on-route charging is not needed for the same reasons that we don’t need to refuel our cars while driving down the highway. The real cause of range anxiety in modern EVs is that in many parts of the world there aren’t enough charging stations. But it’s much cheaper to build more charging stations than to dig up roads and retrofit them with wireless charging infrastructure!
- rconti 7y ago
  EV drivers are used to charging up their cars at home, without making any additional stops. /smug
  - muzika 7y ago
    This. Almost all charging of EVs is done at home. Wish more people realized this.
    - donaltroddyn 7y ago
      Presumably people whose use case would require frequent charging in places other than their home (or work) don't buy electric cars, so there's probably some selection bias here.
      - Reason077 7y ago
        Here in the UK, Tesla owners drive more miles annually on average than owners of any other car brand[1], which suggests they don't have any qualms about driving long distances and charging away from home. (As another data point, I see Teslas regularly parked in my London neighbourhood outside homes that do not have any off-street parking/charging. So at least some EV owners get by without any home charging at all) [1] https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-8263039/UK-Tesla-owners-miles-car-brands.html https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-8263039/UK-...

ashtonkem 7y ago

I get that range anxiety is an irrational fear, but I genuinely doubt that it’s why people don’t buy EVs. I suspect that resistance to change is a more common cause, with range anxiety being a convenient excuse. Besides, any solution to range anxiety has to be tuned to the social benefit it would generate. I’d be more a fan of simply making gasoline more expensive, since what we really need is not people using EVs, but people not using fossil fuels.

turtlebits 7y ago
Range anxiety is not an irrational fear. Even after 2 years of owning an EV (w/ 200+ range), range anxiety is present. Actually it's more like charge while not at home anxiety, as charging is still a crapshoot. - L1 charging is 3-4 miles / hour. - Charging infrastructure is horrendously unreliable. (non-Tesla). I don't do much outside charging, but in 40% of my experiences, chargers are often out of service, throw errors, or not maintained well. (I was at an popular Electrify america spot and 3 of 6 chargers were out of commission, 2 of them were like that for weeks)). - Charging is expensive. More expensive than gas, sometimes ripping you off. Session fees of $3 just for plugging in, plus 4x residential kwh rates.
JaumeGreen 7y ago
> I suspect that resistance to change is a more common cause, with range anxiety being a convenient excuse. In cities, in where lots of people don't have a personal parking space, there's the charging problem, just like now there's the parking problem. Some days I had to search for more than 30 minutes for a spot to park in. Add the charging requirement and I would feel anxious in less than a week.

Reason077 7y ago

> ”People are used to filling up their cars at gas stations” Yes, and EV drivers are used to charging up their cars at charging stations. Wireless on-route charging is not needed for the same reasons that we don’t need to refuel our cars while driving down the highway. The real cause of range anxiety in modern EVs is that in many parts of the world there aren’t enough charging stations. But it’s much cheaper to build more charging stations than to dig up roads and retrofit them with wireless charging infrastructure!

rconti 7y ago
EV drivers are used to charging up their cars at home, without making any additional stops. /smug
- muzika 7y ago
  This. Almost all charging of EVs is done at home. Wish more people realized this.
  - donaltroddyn 7y ago
    Presumably people whose use case would require frequent charging in places other than their home (or work) don't buy electric cars, so there's probably some selection bias here.
    - Reason077 7y ago
      Here in the UK, Tesla owners drive more miles annually on average than owners of any other car brand[1], which suggests they don't have any qualms about driving long distances and charging away from home. (As another data point, I see Teslas regularly parked in my London neighbourhood outside homes that do not have any off-street parking/charging. So at least some EV owners get by without any home charging at all) [1] https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-8263039/UK-Tesla-owners-miles-car-brands.html https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-8263039/UK-...