Solar Roadways

[Dog-amoto]

Great idea - would love to see it happen, even though it would cost trillions to implement, not to mention the storage and logistical problems that would need to be overcome. Still, worth a watch though, and no more country grinding to a halt when it snows.

 

[MoogleViper]

Great idea - would love to see it happen, even though it would cost trillions to implement, not to mention the storage and logistical problems that would need to be overcome.

 

We don't have to implement it overnight. At any one point in time there's dozens of roadworks happening up and down the country. The surface is constantly being relayed. So it wouldn't cost significantly more to just relay them with this instead, and it would bring back for more in return through electricity generation.

[Sméagol]

I thought they announced a new Mario Kart track..

[Cube]

The idea is nice, but I don't think the technology will be ready for wide use on roads just yet. I'm also going to assume that their claims are based on them running efficiently (in reality, these would get incredibly dirty and would need to be constantly cleaned) and, from the looks of it, it wouldn't be a very smooth ride. The prototypes also have unlikely had to deal with a huge amount of traffic.

 

Also, wouldn't theft be a problem? And can you imagine the chaos someone could cause if they hacked into a major road and changed the layout or drew a giant penis?

 

This technology will be best on pavements, driveways, parks, etc to solve the first batch of problems, then we can expand to car parks so we can see the effect of lots of cars moving on them before adding them to a few towns. Then, if it's viable, it can finally be rolled out to main roads and cities.

[jayseven]

 

(via reddit vids)