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Increasing numbers of people think that electric vehicles should replace vehicles powered by other means:

Driven: Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-09/ff_agassi

Tesla's wild ride
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/07/technology/copeland_tesla.fortune

... but I think it's a kluge to have to plug them in. Could some type of power-beaming be part of a more elegant solution?

1. park your car sufficiently near an energy transfer device, in a garage or parking lot;
2. car signals device, communicating its energy need;
3. energy is beamed to car and charges its batteries;
4. amount of energy transferred can be billed to car owner's account.

Some inspiration:

• Wireless energy transfer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer
• 2008 Power Beaming (Climber) Competition http://www.spaceward.org/elevator2010-pb
• Lasers Power Planes, Drones http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000658.html

What do you think?