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[wavelet]

A problem that doesn't exist for us is not the same as a problem that exists for the vast majority who don't yet use what we do.

-Crissa

It doesn't take more time to plug a car in when arriving home than plugging in a mobile phone to charge.

The vast majority of people already does that, and while wireless charging of phones is a thing, it's not that common; it's not a significant need in residential environments -- mostly a convenience feature in cars, or other locations where multiple people might be charging.

[Richard230]

My electric toothbrush charges by an induction process. I just place it on top of a plastic dish that is plugged into my wall outlet and it recharges in a few hours after a week of use.

[wavelet]

My electric toothbrush charges by an induction process. I just place it on top of a plastic dish that is plugged into my wall outlet and it recharges in a few hours after a week of use.

They all do nowadays; the reason for that AFAIK is that in many regions, AC appliances didn't meet safety requirements for bathroom use. Once a conversion to low-voltage DC was needed anyway, it made sense for the e-toothbrush to be rechargeable so it could be taken on trips without the charger. Over here, many residences (incl. my apartment) don't have electric sockets in bathrooms at all, since they would require special GFCI circuits, waterproof covers on the sockets etc.

[Richard230]

My electric toothbrush charges by an induction process. I just place it on top of a plastic dish that is plugged into my wall outlet and it recharges in a few hours after a week of use.

They all do nowadays; the reason for that AFAIK is that in many regions, AC appliances didn't meet safety requirements for bathroom use. Once a conversion to low-voltage DC was needed anyway, it made sense for the e-toothbrush to be rechargeable so it could be taken on trips without the charger. Over here, many residences (incl. my apartment) don't have electric sockets in bathrooms at all, since they would require special GFCI circuits, waterproof covers on the sockets etc.

My bathroom electric sockets would also have similar devices - if my home wasn't built 50 years ago.   

[Doug S]

GFCI's are very easy to add, and are really cheap insurance in areas like bathrooms and kitchens where wet conditions happen frequently. They really could save your life, and IMO there's really no excuse for not retrofitting older buildings.

I'm a bit more skeptical of AFCI's, however. (Arc-fault circuit interrupters). They're required in lots of places now in new construction, but I'm just not convinced retrofitting is really justified.

Are splash shields really required in bathrooms now? How about kitchens? Those things are great outdoors but I've never seen one yet indoors.

[wavelet]

GFCI's are very easy to add, and are really cheap insurance in areas like bathrooms and kitchens where wet conditions happen frequently. They really could save your life, and IMO there's really no excuse for not retrofitting older buildings.

I'm a bit more skeptical of AFCI's, however. (Arc-fault circuit interrupters). They're required in lots of places now in new construction, but I'm just not convinced retrofitting is really justified.

Are splash shields really required in bathrooms now? How about kitchens? Those things are great outdoors but I've never seen one yet indoors.

I'm not in the US 
And GFCIs are cheap, but when you're in a rented apartment, it's not your call whether to retrofit them.
For new construction, we have mandatory GFCI for the breaker panel as a whole, not individual sockets; GFCI-equipped sockets are pretty rare & expensive, and there are very few code-compliant locations for sockets in bathrooms anyway.

[Crissa]

Doug, that's a closed loop... which is not how coils, capacitors, or parallel circuits work.

-Crissa

[NEW2elec]

As for the OP this seems like it's just for the 12V battery.  Likely meant for their gas bikes.  I know some have the battery so covered up and hard to get to it makes hooking up a trickle charger a pain during the winter and just no-ride weeks.

[wavelet]

As for the OP this seems like it's just for the 12V battery.  Likely meant for their gas bikes.  I know some have the battery so covered up and hard to get to it makes hooking up a trickle charger a pain during the winter and just no-ride weeks.

That seems extremely unlikely. Trickle chargers are low-current, and all you need is a 12V cigarette lighter accessory socket (in BMW's case, a DIN plug (-; ), or SAE plug or similar wired directly to the battery you can connect the trickle charger to -- that's a $15 addition to any ICE bike, and I've added one to most bikes I've owned and even just rented.
The article specifically talks about electric bikes.

[NEW2elec]

I guess we'll just disagree on this one.
First that inductive charging is very weak and inefficient compared to wired charging.  There is just no way that is charging a 10+ kWh battery in less than a week.
It seems like just another bell and whistle for BMW owners.  Luxury = lazy.

[Crissa]

The technology can work.  Reduce the gap, increase efficiency.

Here's a working product:  https://www.pluglesspower.com/gen2-tech-specs/

I can't say I'd ever use it unless it really became a really common standard.  But it does exist and does work!

-Crissa

[Doug S]

Sure it works. The technology exists. But that pickup coil is 35 pounds and 33 inches across, for 7.5 kW charging. That's actually better than I thought, given a 4" separation between the primary and secondary coils, and it would get even smaller with closer contact (the end of the kickstand touching the charging pad in the floor).

I still think any reasonable design in the ~6-7 kW range would be very bulky and unmanageable. It might work for overnight ~1-1.5 kW charging system.

[Crissa]

Because it has a transmit distance of four inches, and an off target distance of several inches as well, Doug.  The bike example has a distance in a couple mm.

If we could just roll up and get a kilowatt, well, it wouldn't be such an issue.  Especially if these were everywhere you parked your bike

-Crissa