When inventor and visionary Nikola Tesla erected his Wardenclyffe Tower, a 186-feet tall and 68-feet wide monstrous tower, back in the early 20th century on Long Island, New York, he dreamed about a world driven by wireless telecommunications and power transmission.
While the first part of this vision has been ubiquitously realized, with the global presence of cell phone networks, satellite communication, home wifi, radio, and TV broadcasting, over-the-air charging is still a rare breed. Global technology organizations such as the Wireless Power Consortium has developed low-power charging systems that can charge small, hand held devices using an inductive coupling mechanism.
Unfortunately for Tesla, his ambition of wireless power transmission crashed and "burnt", as his investor withdrew from the project and the tower was left to rust. However, we are close to picking up where his dream project left off. Scientists and engineers are working on new methods that can charge vehicles at high power levels. It's possible that in the near future, our electric cars would no longer be called "plug-in".
Source: Verge Science via Youtube