I'm sure there were tram systems in the past that had pickups in the road via studs, rather like a third rail system.
There still are,
playmofire, for example in Bordeaux, Angers, Reims, Orléans, Dubai Rio de Janeiro and in Nice, where Line 2 has been open since last December and now runs from Magnan in the west of the centre to, alternately, the airport and the CADAM administrative centre, both of which are at the western end of the agglomeration. The eastern terminus will eventually be at the port.
Line 1 uses traditional overhead lines with pantograph current collection but in the interests of the visual environment, trams switch to battery operation through the large and impressive Places Masséna and Garibaldi.
Line 2, however, uses APS - a ground-based current collection system, again for aesthetic reasons. Supply points between the running rails are activated by radio as the tram passes over, with a maximum of two being live at any one time.
Line 1 tram at Pont St Michel (May 2019)
Line 1 tram crosses Place Garibaldi on battery power, December 2013
Line 2 tram at Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport, December 2018
Future Port terminus of Line 2 due to open in December 2019. (Perhaps...) Note boxes in second section of concrete for power supply