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World's First Electrified Road For Charging Vehicles Opens In Sweden (theguardian.com)

A 1.2-mile stretch of road with electric rails has been installed in Stockholm, Sweden, allowing electric vehicles to charge up their batteries as they drive across it. "The technology behind the electrification of the road linking Stockholm Arlanda airport to a logistics site outside the capital city aims to solve the thorny problems of keeping electric vehicles charged, and the manufacture of their batteries affordable," reports The Guardian. From the report: Energy is transferred from two tracks of rail in the road via a movable arm attached to the bottom of a vehicle. The design is not dissimilar to that of a Scalextric track, although should the vehicle overtake, the arm is automatically disconnected. The electrified road is divided into 50m sections, with an individual section powered only when a vehicle is above it. When a vehicle stops, the current is disconnected. The system is able to calculate the vehicle's energy consumption, which enables electricity costs to be debited per vehicle and user. The "dynamic charging" -- as opposed to the use of roadside charging posts -- means the vehicle's batteries can be smaller, along with their manufacturing costs. A former diesel-fuelled truck owned by the logistics firm, PostNord, is the first to use the road.

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  1. Made in America? LOL by hyades1 · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Older readers might remember when anybody reading about this kind of innovation would automatically assume it was American made. If it didn't work out...oh, well, try something else. America was the place to go for risk-taking, awe-inspiring new technology.

    These days, about the only jaw-dropping tech coming out of the America is weaponry, or at least military-related. Anything else is immediately swamped under a pile of whiny little douche bags yapping about "government handouts", while they try to pretend the rest of the free world isn't just moving on while the US turns itself into a Third World backwater.

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    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.