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2014-06-01 04:30 6566637 Anonymous (20140429041428-Snow_melt.jpg 800x593 59kB)
W-Why do the have to be roads? I mean, they can have all the cool tech, heating, debris notification, but one can put them on roofs or stretches of unused land. Not something, y'know, covered in sunlight blocking cars. Plus, you wouldn't have to spend all that money making them strong... I don't get it.

2 min later 6566642 Anonymous (20120801.gif 612x733 50kB)
>>6566637 Because shit's cool. I want my world looking like Tron.

9 min later 6566648 Anonymous (article-2141616-12FC7B7D000005DC-676_634x792.jpg 634x792 67kB)
>>6566637 >Solar Roads gets BTFO by thudnerf00t b-b-but we can still put them under cars in parklots. mfw

16 min later 6566658 Anonymous
>>6566642 But that shit looks like Battletech, not Tron, and I don't want that because it will remind me that we will never have cool giant robots that punch each others and shoot PPCs.

22 min later 6566664 Anonymous
Because the inventor is retarded but the guy doing the adds is genius

37 min later 6566685 Anonymous
>>6566637 The reason it doesn't make sense to you is because it's stupid.

39 min later 6566690 Anonymous
Actual reason: because roads get built anyway and fulfill literally no purpose except being smooth bits of solid material to drive on. It's basically a way of utilizing the space and effort that goes into roads. We need roads. Roads will be be in constant demand until we invent hovercars or go extinct. So the logic is, while we're still making roads, why not make roads that are more functional than a solidified bit of goo? >one can put them on roofs or stretches of unused land Yeah you could do that. You could put them along the side of existing roads if you wanted as well. But the point is that the tiles ARE the road so you're killing two birds with one stone. Anyway the whole thing is a pipe dream, nice idea though it may be.

42 min later 6566696 Anonymous
>>6566690 It's not a nice idea, it's a huge waste of money and a fucking terrible idea. You could use that same argument to say that there should be mcdonalds and gas station every 20 meters on a road because you are gonna build the road anyway. Or put a 50km car wash line on it because you can.

43 min later 6566697 Anonymous
>>6566690 > literally no purpose except being smooth bits of solid material to drive on. You're dumbing that way down. They're supposed to be rough bits of surface which can withstand any environment while loading up to 10 tons of material in any given spot without giving way. And they have to do this job for at least 5 years to be considered good. Glass would get ground smooth, accidents would happen, tiles would break. And all of this would happen within the very first year.

3 hours later 6566961 Anonymous
>>6566664 Not that retarded. He made a couple of million dollars off of it.

9 hours later 6567550 Anonymous
A much better idea would just to build all roofs with solar panels....i mean roofs only serve one purpose too right?

9 hours later 6567569 Anonymous
hear me out guys... if solar roadways ever become a reality, what are the chances they could wirelessly recharge electric cars with graphene batteries?

9 hours later 6567573 Anonymous
>>6567569 about 3-5

9 hours later 6567589 Anonymous
>>6566637 Even with the United States military budget you could not cover all roads with these; that is how expensive they are.

10 hours later 6567612 Anonymous
>>6566637 Because once I hack these babies I'll rule the world. No one would care if I hacked their rooftop.

10 hours later 6567615 Anonymous (1396957696866.jpg 480x360 12kB)
>>6566648 I love tf and his glorious giga-neck.

10 hours later 6567617 Anonymous
>>6567589 >estimated 10 trillion dollars in glass costs alone the hype train comes to a halt

10 hours later 6567643 Anonymous
>>6566696 >mcdonalds and gas station every 20 meters on a road because you are gonna build the road anyway. That's not an accurate comparison, but I do think that the solar roads thing is currently impractical, but if it were to be more durable and less money, then it would be worth doing.

10 hours later 6567657 Anonymous
>>6567643 Ye it's pretty bad, the other one is way better though. Just didn't bother reformatting the post half way trough. >then it would be worth doing. No it would only be worth if literally all other space is already used up. It's a completely retarded idea

10 hours later 6567665 Anonymous (Solar-Freakin-Roadways-2.jpg 620x329 30kB)
Because SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS!

10 hours later 6567669 Anonymous (Light_pollution_It's_not_pretty.jpg 1380x1012 966kB)
>>6566642 what about light pollution faggot? Just put augmented reality in cars, blam! TRAN!

11 hours later 6567704 Anonymous
>>6567589 >It'll cost 1 quadrillion dollar to pave the entire earth with these! >because that is exactly what the creators are proposing!!! only no. Jesus, even I can see the logic of using these in many parking lots and "downtown" areas that virtually have no standing traffic and the sun just bakes empty asphalt all day. No one suggested tearing up the entire American road system. No one.

11 hours later 6567706 Anonymous
>>6566648 did you really watch that whole 28 minute video? I couldn't stand the cartoonish bullshit and hysterical yelling after 30 seconds.

11 hours later 6567716 Anonymous
>>6567704 That is because you are retarded. It would be cheaper to just make covered roads/parking lots and put the solar panels on top of them. There is literally almost no worse place to put solar panels than roads. If you stack them on underground storage at least you don't have to repair them often.

11 hours later 6567729 Anonymous
>>6567716 >It would be cheaper to just make covered roads/parking lots and put the solar panels on top of them. excellent idea. I'm tired of my car fucking baking to 150+ degrees every time I park it.

11 hours later 6567730 Anonymous
>>6567706 >I couldn't stand the cartoonish bullshit That's from the solar roadways people not thunderf00t. I shit you not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlT A3rnpgzU&feature=kp

11 hours later 6567738 Anonymous
>>6567669 I like my night sky dark

11 hours later 6567740 Anonymous
>power outage >no lines on the solar roads >can drive anywhere i want >bu-bu-bu-but offissurrrrr i wasnt breaking no rulezz!

11 hours later 6567744 Anonymous
>>6567716 this I admit there's a the kewl value... but get your priorities straight people.

11 hours later 6567747 Anonymous
The only benefit these have is for the government to be able to track you at all times based on sensors. But you don't need retardedly expensive solar roads to do this.

11 hours later 6567749 Anonymous
>>6567706 >being this retarded

11 hours later 6567754 Anonymous
>>6566637 It looks nice but what would it even feel like to drive on? If its anything like cobblestone I'd rather live by a coal plant than drive on that everywhere.

11 hours later 6567764 Anonymous
Better question: WHY PHOTOVOLTAIC INSTEAD OF THERMAL??? This is why this is a hugely retarded idea. Photovoltaics are inefficient, provide DC current, fragile, need constant cleaning and SMOOTH SURFACES REFLECT LESS LIGHT. Roads are already blacker than rap music in KFC so it will just be a matter of sticking pipes under there and setting up the turbine and cooling system wherever. It will be (relatively) cheap, won't mind people chucking their Macca's out the window, simple and cheap to maintain, the rough, accident-preventing, petrol-saving gravel will IMPROVE absorbsion and it'll actually produce a respectable ammount of electricity. The inventor and all advocates need to drink bleach for being this dumb.

11 hours later 6567773 Anonymous
if this ever happened people would be stealing the panels left and right

11 hours later 6567790 Anonymous (costanza stalker.jpg 349x379 106kB)
>>6567764 >>trying to produce power from a relatively low temperature difference

11 hours later 6567796 Anonymous (1398637847578.jpg 404x428 133kB)
>>6567773 >hordes of gypsies and mexicans descend on US roads to steal the hexagons for their materials Holy fuck I didn't even think of that. Yeah this is never going to fucking happen.

12 hours later 6567834 Anonymous
>>6567790 >implying you can't just increase the pipe length >implying the fluid temperature = road temperature

12 hours later 6567863 Anonymous
>>6566637 Why not sidewalks and the edges of roads instead of smack dab in the middle?

12 hours later 6567874 Anonymous
>>6567764 >being this aussie

12 hours later 6567893 Anonymous
1 weigh ore an udder dis wonent bee teh lahst time yough hier about dis. Igh itz nott solargh roghad weighs it'll bee soghlargh sittees. Ight wount bee roaghds width soghlaragh pahnells it'llbee solar rowedwise; it woughnut /b/ billdings with slr pnels it b solar billings. Mahrek mie werd phages, yew shawl awl bee taughkin liek dis ni dev phewchyours.

13 hours later 6567908 Anonymous
>>6567706 that was not part of his doing. That was the solar road ways "geniuses"

13 hours later 6567916 Anonymous
>>6567669 I have been out in the middle of the wilderness 200 miles away from any civilization and i have never seen a night sky like the left one.

13 hours later 6567941 Anonymous
>>6566690 aye but we need roofs too...

13 hours later 6567944 Anonymous
If these things actually hold up to the advertisements, then they will be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I believe the chances of this happening to be practically zero. >Self heated, so no need to plow snow! Since they use solar power, the glass will need to be cleaned frequently year round, as opposed to just plowed in the winter. >You can't steal them because they have tracking devices! I wonder how long the internal battery on those tracking devices lasts? Also, wouldn't installing high tech tracking devices and internal batteries on a metric fuckton of panels raise costs? >It generates revenue! All the methods of revenue generation listed require corporations to make major investments.

21 hours later 6568307 Anonymous
>>6567730 that's the stupidest fucking video ever is the only fucking test they did driving a small tractor over it at slow speed how about a lorry at 50mph

21 hours later 6568317 Anonymous
>>6567916 you must have some smog / dust problems. I was in a place with no light at all and couldn't even see the moon because of dust

22 hours later 6568355 Anonymous (1400706983520.png 488x719 807kB)
how are they going to melt the snow, if it covers the solar panels? Also, where is the calculation showing the energy demand of melting snow and the theoretical maximum power you can gather with the surface are given. I think there's a reason they don't show it.

23 hours later 6568375 Anonymous
>>6568355 They have no understanding of cost efficiency at all.

23 hours later 6568382 Anonymous (tfzrvdrzp2d8ehe2t4nz.jpg 636x459 32kB)
you know what time it is? It fun math estimation time. Now, it is calculated that it would require 56 trillion dollars to cover all the roads in USA. We should take a look what that could buy. At a industrial price of 0.70 dollars/watt you could buy 80 terrawatts of installed solar power. Now, according to wikipedia and 2008 year total energy consumption of the world, if the panels operated only just 1% of their installed power it would surpass energy needs 175 times. The post scarcity times would start and then we could tile any shitty surface with any shitty led tiles anyone wants.

23 hours later 6568392 Anonymous
>>6568382 >56 trillion dollar Where did you pull this one? In any case just building the same amount to nevada would come at fraction of the price.

23 hours later 6568398 Anonymous
>>6568392 56 figure is from some article, but now I see it's wrong and it should be a lot higher, a lot

23 hours later 6568417 Anonymous
Why not fill all the deserts with cheap solar panels? Cheap solar panels + asphalt <$ solar panel roads.

23 hours later 6568423 Anonymous
>>6568417 because people are stupid and something that's cool, but unrealistic, beats something boring and feasible every time.

23 hours later 6568426 Anonymous
>>6568417 This. With the idea that we will have cars driving, crashing, and rolling onto these things means that road repair will be more expensive than before. This idea is fucking bullshit, I can only hope it's privately funded and not backed by the US government.

24 hours later 6568428 Anonymous
>>6568426 It's funded by green idiots who aren't exactly known for their critical thinking when someone starts throwing around words like environment and organic. You can easily see what kind of people donate if you look on their indiegogo. You see that t-shirt reward? It clearly says "Organic t-shirt". They also have a canvas bag as a reward, with various slogans and logos where they can show that they are doing their part to save the environment. Because that's what these people care about.

24 hours later 6568429 Anonymous
>>6566637 Honestly it sounds like it will have applications in the real world but they will be very limited. It's not a solar roadway in my mind, it's a smart road.

24 hours later 6568431 Anonymous
Roads covered in solar panels is retarded. Roads covered in piezoelectric panels on the other hand...

24 hours later 6568433 Anonymous
>>6568429 I think you missed the fact that glass is a horrendous road surface. >but muh load bearing What about the durability, friction, and cost?

24 hours later 6568440 Anonymous
>>6568433 They also haven't proposed any realistic argument that would stop people from stealing the panels/parts from the panels.

24 hours later 6568444 Anonymous
>>6568440 It's simple, you just add a $300 GPS tag to each tile. What's another $50 trillion when we are already talking about several years worth of the global GDP, just to cover the United States?

24 hours later 6568445 Anonymous
>>6566637 Why not just have smart phones and solar panels separate? Oh wait it already exists, both of which are cheaper and more efficient that the combination.

24 hours later 6568455 kraid
>>6567916 exactly.

24 hours later 6568463 Anonymous
>>6568444 It's simple, you just put it in a lead box.

24 hours later 6568471 Anonymous
>>6567796 Who's the nigger who keeps posting canadian tire money trying to force a meme. It's not funny you twat. Gtfo back to somethingawful.

24 hours later 6568476 Anonymous
>>6566648 >thunderfoot Literally the Spoony of Youtube sciencefags. Takes 15 fucking minutes to state a paragraph's worth of information.

25 hours later 6568484 Anonymous
>>6568463 life will find a way

27 hours later 6568654 Anonymous
>>6566690 Flying cars would literally create an entire different social life. Imagine never having to wait to cross a street? Cars are so important to humans we are willing to die at a massive rate, even at a young age in cars. Cars will always be the one thing I never understood. Cars are literally the most awful thing for all of humans. Local-ism would thrive with open streets. Unity would restored to the people. Just the constant bustling of cars is enough to make people from out outside of cities sick.

27 hours later 6568691 Anonymous
>>6568654 Roads take up so much space at least as much as houses. 45,000sq mi of impervious surface in the lower 48 united states, that is 1.4% of ALL land covered in pavement and asphalt. All that space could be filled with other stuff parks, bigger yards, Forrest, or just put everything closer together.

27 hours later 6568702 Anonymous
>>6568654 omg i thought of how to solve the problem that glass durability is inferior to asphalts. just do this solar roadway thing then invent flying cars so they don't deteriorate it

27 hours later 6568712 Anonymous (shocked_cat11.jpg 250x250 7kB)
>>6568702

27 hours later 6568726 Anonymous (360 MODENA N GT (photo 4 dans racing).jpg 500x323 19kB)
>>6568654 shut up faggot. cars are fucking awesome.

27 hours later 6568746 Anonymous (1361838185982.jpg 625x418 74kB)
>>6568726 >cars >awesome Tip top lel.

27 hours later 6568748 Anonymous
>>6568726 m--m-muh engine roars >I l-love my car. Car freaks are the worst. It wouldn't even shock me if some of them fuck their gas tanks or dry hump the back seat. Those people are fucked in the head.

27 hours later 6568749 Anonymous
>>6568654 >Cars are literally the most awful thing for all of humans. Fast, individualized transportation is literally the best thing for all of humans.

27 hours later 6568750 Anonymous
>>6568748 >stop liking what i dont like you sound like a faggot. please kill yourself.

28 hours later 6568796 Anonymous
>>6568749 If not sure the benefits outweigh everything else. I personally think only business should have access to cars. Mail, sales, food, etc. >>6568750 Have you ever been around call culture? It is...painful to watch.

28 hours later 6568800 Anonymous
>>6566637 >stretches of unused land cuz fuck the environment and those dirty tree hugging hippies, amirite? who needs an ecosystem when you've got walmart.

28 hours later 6568816 Anonymous
Also, where would they put the concrete? But actually I would love for this idea to take off, it would generate massive work requirements. I am not american, so I don't give a shit about americans, but I would use their dolla.

28 hours later 6568826 Anonymous
>>6567744 >get your priorities straight people. Don't you think gay people should get their priorities as well?

28 hours later 6568870 Anonymous
>>6568816 The problem with that is that solar roads turn all of the current roady jobs into skilled labor. It's one thing for the various departments of transportation to hire a bunch of deadbeats with a weekend certification to pave a segment of road or redo a birm. It's another beast entirely when all those people have to be electricians and technicians. It would likely just even out since all the jobs gained though these roads would be evened out by the normal road guys getting laid off.

28 hours later 6568877 Anonymous
Grass and nature looks nice. Much nicer than ugly-ass solar panels. We already have roads. Better to make them serve two purposes than waste twice the land with solar panels.

29 hours later 6568951 Anonymous
>>6566666 Wutwut

29 hours later 6568952 Anonymous
>>6568877 We already have roofs. Better to make them serve two purposes than waste twice the land with solar panels.

47 hours later 6570689 Anonymous
>>6567704 >No one suggested tearing up the entire American road system. No one. Except the narrator of the video. They use the entire US road system in most of their calculations.

47 hours later 6570698 GloriaTheCutlass
>>6566637 Because they've got to be highly inefficient solar cells - and why would you use those when you could use higher efficiency ones which have much less demand for operating conditions?

47 hours later 6570730 Anonymous
>>6568877 >We already have roads. Well, that's all the more reason not to destroy them to build new ones

47 hours later 6570758 Anonymous
If you want to turn roads into solar panels at least build the solar panels above the cars. Build a cover over the roads and put the solar panels on that. I'm not saying it's practical. It would just be more practical than trying to source incredible amounts of glass that is going to be polished by grit and car tires. Then you don't have to worry about cars covering the solar panels and all the cars can drive in the shade, cutting down on air conditioning costs. We already do this with parking lots and that works a lot better, since you don't have cars covering up the solar panels.

50 hours later 6570933 Anonymous
>>6570758 also i don't know if anyone has addressed this but wouldn't the solar panels on the road be less infection as they are not at a angle or does it not have a significant effect?

50 hours later 6570943 Anonymous
>>6567573 decent

50 hours later 6570947 Anonymous
>>6567738 and that's exactly what you don't get with light pollution Night time is never pitch black near cities

51 hours later 6570978 Anonymous
Looks like you got this idea from the Venus Project :)

52 hours later 6571074 Joker
bitch about no funding for science,blows 54 trillion dollars on a concept that won't even work as promised. Come on guys.

52 hours later 6571075 Anonymous
>>6571074 Where do you think we are?

52 hours later 6571081 Anonymous
thunderfag is a queer but his video about solar roads was pretty good. An example of something that pissed in my cornflakes is Bill Burr. He saw the first couple of minutes of the video and then proceeded to say that all thunderqueer did was ask questions and didn't debunk anything. Still a funny guy though. I wonder how many people did the same.

52 hours later 6571083 Joker
How about we build space elevators instead, and build the solar panels in space? About about we replace our current generation atomic power plants with the latest technology,and develop fusion energy?

52 hours later 6571101 Joker
>>6571083 Why do we need these special roads that tell people that there's danger ahead,when we have drive-less cars that are about to hit the consumer market? Why can't we use the 50+ trillion dollars to buy everyone in America driver less electric cars, and still have plenty of money left over for atomic power plants? There are 190,000,000 people who drive in the US http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/ onh2p4.htm 190 million times 60,000 dollars equals a bill of 11,400,000,000,000

52 hours later 6571114 Anonymous (kill yourself 2.jpg 480x480 69kB)
>>6568796 Whil;e we're at it, let's get rid of plains and trains too. That way we can really get to know our neighbors. And why have toilets when we can just shit in the woods? You know what? Let's invent time travel and go back to the Medieval ages when everything was good.

52 hours later 6571121 Anonymous
This is just a solution looking for a problem, there's no reason not to put solar panels elsewhere.

52 hours later 6571123 Anonymous
>>6571083 Sounds like Gundam 00

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