I can't speak much about other countries, but the US blows unfathomable amounts of money on incredibly narrow-sighted projects (particularly military). But yet

I 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.