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Hmm... Can we just applaud that people are trying something new? Or are we going to shoot it down because of pessimism? If you know so well what works, then

Hmm... Can we just applaud that people are trying something new? Or are we going to shoot it down because of pessimism? If you know so well what works, then do your best and make it happen or write a guide on how to do experiments that almost always lead to success. They didn’t fail fast, but they failed with relatively little costs. What is 5 million to the national GDP of France? It seems to me they were trying something new, were brave and paid the price. In most cases you get nothing back.

thaumaturgy 7y ago
Yeah, this is how I see it too. It was an experiment. It failed. Things were learned from deploying it into a real-world environment. This may contribute in some way to a future technology, as often happens. HN of course is full of people who are experts on every topic, so naturally there was no need to actually perform this experiment. They could have just accurately predicted its faults and performance from theorizing alone after reading just a few articles about materials science and the properties of modern roads. While we're busy talking about the obvious and predictable failure of this experiment, we should also take a moment to also revisit the obvious and predictable failure that was Dropbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6625306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6625306
- zzzcpan 7y ago
  Unlike in dropbox case, this is something people with engineering degrees that often include physics and material sciences can actually calculate.
- roar-of-time 7y ago
  The comments on that page are overwhelmingly friendly. And regardless, how can you even compare the two?! Dropbox fulfilled an obvious need and fulfilled it very well, whereas "solar roads" don't seem to be a solution to any problem at all!
- DanBC 7y ago
  > Things were learned from deploying it into a real-world environment. Nothing was learned.
mr_toad 7y ago
> What is 5 million to the national GDP of France? It’s loose change compared to the money spent on fusion research. And even after being a failure, it still generated more power.

thaumaturgy 7y ago

Yeah, this is how I see it too. It was an experiment. It failed. Things were learned from deploying it into a real-world environment. This may contribute in some way to a future technology, as often happens. HN of course is full of people who are experts on every topic, so naturally there was no need to actually perform this experiment. They could have just accurately predicted its faults and performance from theorizing alone after reading just a few articles about materials science and the properties of modern roads. While we're busy talking about the obvious and predictable failure of this experiment, we should also take a moment to also revisit the obvious and predictable failure that was Dropbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6625306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6625306

zzzcpan 7y ago
Unlike in dropbox case, this is something people with engineering degrees that often include physics and material sciences can actually calculate.
roar-of-time 7y ago
The comments on that page are overwhelmingly friendly. And regardless, how can you even compare the two?! Dropbox fulfilled an obvious need and fulfilled it very well, whereas "solar roads" don't seem to be a solution to any problem at all!
DanBC 7y ago
> Things were learned from deploying it into a real-world environment. Nothing was learned.

mr_toad 7y ago

> What is 5 million to the national GDP of France? It’s loose change compared to the money spent on fusion research. And even after being a failure, it still generated more power.