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Solar Roadways

Phones, computers, tablets, and all other forms of electronic wizardry
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ThatOneFox
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Solar Roadways

Post by ThatOneFox »

[media=youtube]qlTA3rnpgzU[/media]
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freekboy31
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Post by freekboy31 »

I'll fund this in my nation somewhere in the future. Kudos to the people who thought of this and turn it into real thing.

I wonder if these roadways are prone to disasters.. if they are overall-proof or not.
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TheLastLink
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Post by TheLastLink »

pipe dream alert
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Phantomboy
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Post by Phantomboy »

Wow, that is - really really impressive. In fact, especially in my area, all of the major road lines already need to be replaced. They recently hit 45 years over their expected life, and their ware is really, really showing. So, I could imagine, if they stated to be implemented as replacing roads as needed, not tearing up roads that are new or decent, it would greatly reduce the bulk cost. I am very excited by this concept, I think even in small bursts it would save money in the long run.
TheLastLink wrote:pipe dream alert
Well, I think replacing every road is a bit, ambitious. Especially since many smaller towns won't have nearly enough founds to pay to replace all of their roads, and large cities have far too many roads to even think about replacing. In small steps, I could see these greatly assisting generation of electricity.
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ElectroYoshi
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Post by ElectroYoshi »

Man, that's impressive.

I doubt they could do this with all concrete like they say, because, let's be honest, that'd be more than a little pricey. But it could still work out pretty well. My town has a lot of parking lots that are really, really, REALLY worn out (There's a Pizza Hut near my school that has an enormous dip in it), so I could see this working out pretty well in small bursts.
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bionicnacho
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Post by bionicnacho »

Wow, this is an amazing idea!

What I am worried about though is that roads would need to be reconstructing, and doing that to every road can be quite expensive and be a big hassle. Imagine having to remake a big highway. It'd be a pain because of the massive amount of traffic they get, but I guess afterwards it'll be worth it for a better future.

With these things powering themselves and homes, I can see electricity being much, much cheaper, which is great. I also like how they were able to put things like internet cables underground but it looks really uncomfortable for a technician to crawl under there to fix something. Talk about back pain xD

How much do these things cost anyway? I expect them to be preeetty expensive...
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Baufritz
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Post by Baufritz »

Well you can always replace it lane by lane and keep the other lanes open for traffic...
I don't think countries have a big enough budget to replace asphalt streets with high-tech solar panels though.
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Sebastian Lawe
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Post by Sebastian Lawe »

I'd love my get my hands on a few of these. Only thing though, are they just as easy to remove, as they are to install? Do they have any sort of locking mechanism?
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St0l3n_ID
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Post by St0l3n_ID »

Quote of a buddy:
"I cant wait until someone starts hacking those things"

With a easily accessible service channel like shown and the module structure it seems easy enough to remove or manipulate wireing and messing with the system, or going into a software based attack on infrasturcture.
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TheLastLink
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Post by TheLastLink »

St0l3n_ID wrote:Quote of a buddy:
"I cant wait until someone starts hacking those things"

With a easily accessible service channel like shown and the module structure it seems easy enough to remove or manipulate wireing and messing with the system, or going into a software based attack on infrasturcture.
I hadn't even thought about that. That's a good one.

Nobody participating in the massive hype train, it seems, has stopped and actually thought about it.

All we hear about are all the problems this apparent "miracle technology" is going to solve, but nothing about
the problems it might CREATE.

For example:

If these "solar roadway" panels are really as strong or stronger than asphalt or concrete, then they are much more expensive. There's no question.

And if they aren't prohibitively expensive, they're probably weaker than regular asphalt or concrete, which means that if we were to magically replace every highway with solar roadways, the maximum legal weight for truck loads would have to be lowered.

And then there's the fact that (presumably) they have to be tiled in such a way so that the connections are strong enough to withstand all the traffic, that means that every time one panel stops working, an entire section of the road has to be dis-assembled in order to replace one broken panel. Did I mention that possibility of individual panels breaking?

How about them newfangled lights? Yes, the solar panels generate electricity, but without some SERIOUSLY cutting-edge battery technology, it can't be stored locally. Which means that every time there's a power outage, the road goes off. No markings on the road. No lanes, no turnoffs, no nothing.

There apparently has to be a service tunnel beside every solar roadway, for maintenance, connection, energy re-routing and the like. I wouldn't want to see what would happen if there were to be a malicious attack against what amounts to the power grid for the road.

The video implies that the solar roadway panels can be remotely accessed. Like Stolen ID said, things that can be remotely accessed can be hacked. I REALLY wouldn't want to see what would happen if someone were to mess with the road markings on a relatively busy intersection.

I could go on and on, but the point is, just because it sounds great in theory as described by someone with the best possible intentions for it, doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential to be a massive flop at best, and a massive disaster at worst.
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Phantomboy
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Post by Phantomboy »

That, is actually fairly good point.. I hadn't thought of the security of that. When I brought the panels up to my friends in the past, one of their comments was wondering what a possible flaw would be, I think you painted a pretty good case for what could happen. I don't think that means we should be entirely negative on this project, but it is important to keep both sides in mind, thanks for that :)
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TheLastLink
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Post by TheLastLink »

This is a good article on the subject. It gets right to the point that I was making, but says it much better.
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