Qualcomm Halo: Cable-Free Electric Car Charger

Qualcomm—the processor-maker that powers plenty of today's smartphones—has also been working on automotive technology. In fact, at CES 2012 the firm presented a system for charging electric vehicles with no cables required.

Here's how it works—an electric car comes and parks itself (preferably automatically) above a special power transfer plate. The system then starts charging the vehicle over the air with up to 3.5 kW of power and with approximately 90% efficiency. That's pretty much equivalent to cable-based charging.

Compatible vehicles could be on the market from as soon as 2014. In the meantime, Qualcomm is set to trial the system in London with around 50 cars.

If the technology takes off, maybe one day we'll see car parks and garages with built-in charging plates, or even motorways with special lanes to charge vehicle batteries as they drive. You'd never need to worry about running out of petrol again!

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