Getting the technology working is not the hard part. As with EVs in general, the difficulty is in the deployment. And if you thought rolling out a charging network was difficult... here's just a few things you need to consider:
- How many such systems are there? Are they compatible, or will cars sold in one state/region not be able to charge in another?
- Can it be retrofitted onto existing cars or would people need to buy entirely new cars to make use of this?
- What happens when construction crews need to work on the roadway? Lanes are often shifted with cones or temporary paint, which won't follow the tracks.
- How expensive is it to install and maintain? We already have so much infrastructure that we have trouble keeping it going, and this adds extra costs on top of that. See how many bridges we have in poor condition. And what happens when it's not maintained?
- Who owns the technology behind it? Will they still support it 10 years from now? 20? 50?
Sure, it could work - but I think you're underestimating the logistics of actually rolling something like this out. The battery supply chain is a problem, but I don't think it's enough of a problem that electrifying highways would be simpler.
> Our options are: keep burning fossil fuels until they run out, transition to electric vehicles in a reasonably scalable way, or do away with cars entirely.
This is a false dichotomy. We can reduce our dependence on cars without fully eliminating them. (Oh, and smaller EV batteries are more practical if the places you're going are closer together anyway, even if they're not quite within walking or biking distance.)
- How many such systems are there? Are they compatible, or will cars sold in one state/region not be able to charge in another?
- Can it be retrofitted onto existing cars or would people need to buy entirely new cars to make use of this?
- What happens when construction crews need to work on the roadway? Lanes are often shifted with cones or temporary paint, which won't follow the tracks.
- How expensive is it to install and maintain? We already have so much infrastructure that we have trouble keeping it going, and this adds extra costs on top of that. See how many bridges we have in poor condition. And what happens when it's not maintained?
- Who owns the technology behind it? Will they still support it 10 years from now? 20? 50?
Sure, it could work - but I think you're underestimating the logistics of actually rolling something like this out. The battery supply chain is a problem, but I don't think it's enough of a problem that electrifying highways would be simpler.
> Our options are: keep burning fossil fuels until they run out, transition to electric vehicles in a reasonably scalable way, or do away with cars entirely.
This is a false dichotomy. We can reduce our dependence on cars without fully eliminating them. (Oh, and smaller EV batteries are more practical if the places you're going are closer together anyway, even if they're not quite within walking or biking distance.)