SALT LAKE CITY — The technology to charge vehicles from roadways exists in Turin, Italy, and Seoul, South Korea.
It's all about timing as to when that technology will be implemented in the United States.
"A lot of it will depend on the political will of the municipalities, the states and federal government," Wes Smith of Utah State University's Energy Dynamics Laboratory, part of a consortium developing the technology, told a room of academics and businessmen Tuesday night.
The technology is based on the idea that a vehicle's power source — a combustion engine in a gasoline cars and a battery in a hybrid or electric car — is buried below the road surface. When drivers roll over the power sources, perhaps at a stoplight, they get a charge at a cost of about 35 cents per gallon.
The automated electric transportation system was just one idea tossed around among panelists who discussed the future of transportation at an event hosted by soon-to-open arts, science and technology museum The Leonardo and the Utah Science, Technology and Research Initiative.
Panelists agreed that the future of transportation will involve changing how vehicles burn energy. New technologies will cost money, and the private sector will likely step in to meet future transportation needs more than in the past.
The actual placement of roads, however, does not reflect how people travel, said Harvey Miller, chairman of the University of Utah geography department.
Miller showed a map of Amsterdam foot and vehicle traffic based on GPS tracking. Most people's movement was around the city center, far from major traffic arteries.
"We have an enormous amount of people all trying to use a very inefficient transportation system," he said.
However, the changes Smith and Miller proposed may not be pragmatic.
Steve Pruitt, a principal with Ares Transportation Technologies, is working on making cars more efficient. Pruitt started with race cars and moved on to semitrailers.
"The political side of it is, what system is everybody going to buy into and can you afford the amortization of it?" he said.
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