SAN DIEGO — Imagine charging your electric car as easily as you charge your electric toothbrush.

Or, your car charging itself as it drives down the road.

Those scenarios are not as far-fetched as you may think. Indeed, a group of tech gurus who gathered last month in San Diego discussed how a wireless electric vehicle is about to become a reality.

“This is definitely coming,” said Jesse Schneider, chairman of the wireless task force for the Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE, an international group working to develop common standards to make sure the sector’s competing technologies work together.

Car buyers are familiar with plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles, but companies such as Qualcomm seek to jump-start the transition from internal combustion to zero-emission cars with “inductive” charging.

Instead of charging a vehicle with a plug or cable, the driver using a wireless system aligns the car over a charging pad and an electromagnetic field does the rest.

“Customers wait for the green light and then walk away, knowing when they come back they will be more fully charged or fully charged, depending on how long they were away,” said Schneider. “You can actually just park over the wireless charging system and everything is done automatically after that.”

The technology has been talked about for years but, starting with the hybrid version of the 2018 Mercedes-Benz S550e, wireless vehicle charging technology will make its debut. The German automaker reached an agreement with Qualcomm to use the San Diego-based company’s Halo technology as a feature on the luxury car, which has a base price of $96,600.

A slew of other car makers are about to enter the wireless-charging market as well.

View full article on courier-tribune.