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I agree that we as a society generally need to afford ourselves to be brave and fail sometimes. But... this seems like such a bad idea even in theory. Road sur
by filleokus 7y ago
I agree that we as a society generally need to afford ourselves to be brave and fail sometimes. But... this seems like such a bad idea even in theory.
Road surfaces have pretty specific and harsh needs, which currently can be mostly solved with really cheap solutions (concrete/asphalt). Photovoltaic cells on the other hand are comparably very expensive and fragile.
Surely, land can't be that expensive in most places that it makes sense to use the road surface, compared to say roofs.
- blunte 7y agoI can't speak much about other countries, but the US blows unfathomable amounts of money on incredibly narrow-sighted projects (particularly military). But yet, some of what is learned from those projects benefits science and technology. I think what we might gain from this solar road experiment will be related to material science in the area of solar panels. Just look at mobile phones; surely the transition from old plastic in front of LCDs to "gorilla" glass has benefited other use cases. I'm just guessing here, but I bet there is something to learn which can be applied elsewhere. I think flying cars are absolutely moronic and completely impractical. But who knows... maybe the brainpower spent trying to make them work will result in better traffic management or people transportation elsewhere.