Detroit's electric road

The city of Detroit opened the country's first road capable of wirelessly charging electric vehicles as they drive this week, a key step toward wider adoption of the technology. The quarter-mile demonstration project is meant to show the feasibility of wireless charging as a supplement to an eventual nationwide charging network for electric vehicles. The technology relies on magnetic resonance induction, similar to wireless charging for cellphones and other devices (and discovered by Nikola Tesla). Effectively, large copper coils placed under the road create a magnetic field, which induces an electric current in a receiver in the car as it drives through, thereby charging the battery (watch 101). The process is not harmful to humans.