1. Concrete and asphalt significantly attenuate radio signals, especially reinforced concrete.
2. Both concrete and asphalt expand and contract, and would likely damage the chips.
3. Asphalt isn't exactly solid at all times, compounding the issue above.
4. Reading said chips would be difficult, as they would only be in range for a few tens of milliseconds.
Crazy idea: turn road stripes into magnetic tape, encode the data and read it like a tape player :P
And here's a reverse system where the track identifies the passing wagons: https://turckvilant.com/success_story/running-at-250km-h/
It's interesting that RFID developed out of, partly, a desire by freight train operators to track traincars as they moved around switching yards (moving past fixed readers). The Eurobalise system is sort of the reciprocal of that idea.
They could instead be mounted on the lane-separation poles / walls, on the cat-eye embedded marks, and other things that are installed on the road anyway, and have a good protection and line-of-sight.
The nice thing is that you really don't need to use any intelligence when placing the markers. They could be permanently set with a random GUID at time of manufacture, and then just installed in the road. After installation, someone (e.g. Google Maps car or crowdsourced project) could drive the road and cross-reference the RFID GUIDs to their actual location.
Of course, you could opt for multiple strips with convex upper surfaces, and wheels with concave ones, such that you obviate the need for a cam follower - gravity provides the forces needed to center a wheel along its guidance strip.
If you wanted to bring an Uber/Lyft/Didi model into this, you'd have multiple riders sharing the vehicle (netting them a lower fare, of course), and the conveyance would make several stops along the way. It's true that this might not offer door-to-door convenience, but apparently Uber et al have had success with getting their riders to walk short distances to catch their rides, so we know that it's a viable business model.
I've been sitting on some of these ideas for years. Send me your VC contacts, I'd love to get in touch.
Edit: Also if you're using shaped wheels to guide the car along the road, I think we've just reinvented the tram.
[1] https://www.lisbonlux.com/images/transportation/rua-augusto-... https://st.depositphotos.com/1000848/4380/i/950/depositphoto...
There are quite a few methods that could be employed to guide vehicles, from overhead lines, to hip-level rails, to infrared, electrical and magnetic buried lines, and so on.
The reason we don't implement them is the public doesn't want to invest in public transit because they prefer driving their inefficient dangerous polluting cars.