Home > Pavilion > Ride/Show Technology > Charging System Most ride vehicles are either driven by motors in the track (such as Disney's Omnimover, found in Spaceship Earth, Haunted Mansion, etc) or are self-propelled and powered by a "buss bar" in the track ("Mr Toad's Wild Ride", "Snow White's Scary Adventures", etc.). The unique requirements of the Traveling Theater (particularly the way it breaks from "6-Pack" formation, travels single file, and re-assembles) made either of these arrangements impractical, if not impossible. The Traveling Theater is both self-propelled, and self-powered, with eight lead-acid automotive batteries on board each vehicle. The batteries power the vehicles' drive systems, on-board computers and navigational systems, giving the vehicles relative autonomy--they can even be driven outside of the pavilion! The batteries would run down quickly, though, if they were not periodically recharged. That presented a challenge, as you couldn't stop the show to "plug in" the vehicles, and in a guest area, any charging system had to be designed with safety in mind. That's where an innovative power coupling system comes into play. Beam Me Up, Scotty! When first hearing about it, it sounds like something right out of Star Trek. In a sense, you you could say that power is "beamed" to the vehicles. The "inductive power coupling" system, developed by California-based Inductran Corporation, literally transmits power to the vehicles' battery chargers right through thin air! Within each of the pavilion's two turntables are six "charging plates." When the vehicles are parked on the turntables, they rest directly over the charging plates. There are no exposed electrical connections, and indeed no contact whatsoever between the charging plates and the vehicles atop them. Within each charging plate is a powerful electromagnet (an electrified coil of wire wrapped around a metal core). Another coil on the bottom of the vehicle passes through the concentrated magnetic field of the charge plate, inducing an electrical current into the vehicle's coil. That current is supplied to the vehicles' battery chargers to recharge the batteries. Safety The system is smart enough to know when a vehicle is positioned over a charging plate, and will activate that charging plate only in the presence of a vehicle. But even if you were to stand directly atop a "live" charging plate, it wouldn't do any harm. On a rare occasion, a vehicle may be out of service, and can't be repaired or replaced with the spare right away. The show may run on a "5-Pack" (a cluster of five vehicles, instead of the usual six), leaving an open space on the turntable, where the sixth vehicle would normally rest. If you look to the open space, you'll see a large blue plastic rectangle, approximately 2' x 3'. That's the top of the charging plate. Of course though it's safe, we don't encourage you to test it yourself--as you may damage the charge plate, and will almost certainly be politely but sternly warned by the Cast Members to stay clear.