File this under the “Just kinda cool” category. The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is working on piezoelectric roads that generate electricity as cars drive over them. Using crystals the experimental road generates 400 kilowatts of power per hour. Not a lot but… I like the outside the box/herd thinking.
Combine this with the MIT City Car and a trolley like electricity system and we might have something. Perhaps a more realistic version of Minority Report-like Singapore MonicMRT or England’s Ultra.
A couple of problems here, Ed. First, kilowatts per hour is clearly wrong in this context — maybe they meant kilowatts for the whole experiment? This common error makes a big difference when considering the physics, or the economics! I have to say, though, that having us drive on crystals is creatively New-Age-y. Maybe the next-gen road can have pyramids, too?
Second, taking power from self-propelled vehicles is a kind of hidden taxation or toll, except that it’s only indirectly money. Consider how much harder it is to walk on beach sand than sidewalk, or recall how hard it is to pedal your tricycle on the carpet, because a fraction of your transportation power is sucked away by the “road”. I haven’t done the math quantitatively, but multiplying the energy inefficiencies of the vehicles, the crystals, and the necessary energy conversion circuitry, I suspect everyone would be better off if the road charged an overt toll and purchased electricity from the grid.