Too good to be true? YES! Solar freaking panels... ;)

I imagine the idea is to literally put them anywhere they will fit and effectively catch sunlight. It would be our primary energy source.

Can't wait till Perth let's us know his thoughts

Me too!

Super cool!

Look how fantastic the world could be if 10% of the fuckwads weren't keeping 90% of the populations money in fantasy land.

Be great in the summer :)

:ccp:

It'll never happen. Asphalt is a waste byproduct and is cheap and completely recyclable. Good luck with solar panels replacing roadways. Maybe concrete freeways...

I love this idea. Hope it catches on and they put in some. It would be great to replace all of our roads with it.

I love how people just assumed they have lower traction and can't take weight.

Neither is true.

You can also remove and replace them individually. Road repair would actually be significantly faster. One man with one truck will be able to fix a damaged section. Versus a whole damn paving crew and equipment.

They also melt their own snow and ice.

No more snow removal, no more lost traction in winter, no more salt eating cars. Big relief to the storm sewer system and environment.

Road accidents go way down because the road itself will detect and warn you of hazards. Lanes will be able to reshape themselves around accidents. Less roadkill for same reason.

Sometimes things are more expensive because they're just that much better.

You got me with the road repair and all the bullshit

I can't stand seeing 8 guys standing around shooting the shit looking at nude pictures of their girlfriends while I trudge off to the salt mines

What happens when they get dirty.

How much energy do they produce - how long to pay for each tile - especially if the energy is going into LED, processing and heating?

What happens in Scandinavia in the winter?

How much is the infrastructure of the communication between these and who runs it and how much do the server farms cost?

What happens when something that controls road markings fails?

Just do pavements, pathways and other paved areas. Roads will just be too dangerous until this has evolved a bit.

wow what a great way to privatize the roads and charge you per mile with all that tracking tech but everybody would love because of the cool led displays built right into road and will not need their overpriced iphone and tvs.... but dumb asses will not benefit from without paying extra

That's actually the plan. The inventors are being very smart and taking the long view. They want them to be as safe as you do. That is why they talk about driveways, parking lots and parks as the first steps.

at the end of the video they suggest doing driveways and some common play areas and footpaths first :)

I always thought it would be badass like


when there is an accident the other lanes will shift down like on an incline so people can't rubberneck!

And in the winter, shoveling sucks and I imagine no icy highways to drive on.......would be great too!

We could have this and support it all on what the military spends a year on itself...

But well... madmen run the world so...

If it's cost effective to not only install, but also maintain and deliver/store the energy in an effective manner--this truly would be a profound invention. As far as who is getting the savings by using solar, private properties would be reluctant to lay out the $ to just get a "credit" on their electric bill, like we do with the current system of solar power. Until the energy market is deregulated and unmonopolitized, these sort of things will never catch on.

Yup, they sure do.

That couple should go on "Shark Tank" to get recognition.

This will never come to pass or be feasible until both the automotive industry and rubber industry are totally revolutionized. Tires leave rubber on the road, this is why they wear down and why you see 2 stripes down each lane where the tires travel the most. That deposited rubber would block out the sun and cause such a decrease in efficiency that the cost to maintain would outweigh any gains obtained from installation and conversion to said plan. This is a pure pipe dream and if any tax money has been paid into it then the person who awarded the contract and authorized money to be spent on this should be brought up on charges for larceny and imbezzlement as I'm sure that the company the contract was awareded to is connected financially to the contract granter.

This is pure government corruption in it's most obvious form. Seriously, does the fed really think people are this stupid...?

The cars of the future would run on the electro-magnetic fields generated by the arrays...



:damnedbig:

Awesome and LMAO at 7-9 seconds into that vid.

I'd like to see more videos on this that don't treat me like an idiot when I watch it. Great idea, but couldn't even make it all the way through with this jackass narrator and video format.

The only problem I can see is:

Silicon mining process is fine, plenty of silicon on earth (sand, folks). It's the refining. It takes like 3700 degrees Fahrenheit to get the silicon from the sand.

use solar burners??

i think for every problem there is a solution... mind you, i also believe my glass is always half full.....

Let me guess... Solar panels made entirely in China?

Heat producing....Hhmmmm

Wow...talk about Heat Islands in the cities

I think it will. 1 block at a time.

IF they could come up with a mass production scheme that can build these...

then YES YES..... YES!!