Solar Roadways - Working prototype and pictures!

[Mookuh]

The latest XKCD What-if blog mentions the Solar Roadways, too.

(Image by XKCD)

Tho by reading, it seems the author isn't convinced either.
Keyboard Power

 

[derekt75]

Yet again: (Umh… language warning, and I don’t mean Australian Accent)

I didn't get through his whole spiel. but I did buy his T-shirt.

 

[chickensevil]

The thought just occurred to me... forget roadways, those are peanuts in the solar scope and possible land coverage... I am thinking even more grandiose. Solar Freaking Oceans!

I mean think about it, the earth is 2/3rd covered by water... all that water space just sitting there going to waste. I mean... even if we just use 1/3 of that space to cover the oceans (leaving the rest open for oceanic traveling) that would be an enormous amount of coverage enough to supply more power than we could possibly consume even going far into the future.

But power generation isn't everything... As you know, there is a global crisis, and one of the causes is melting polar ice caps (which reflect the suns energy) vs water growth (which absorbs the suns energy) is causing a dramatic heat increase on the planets surface. We might not be able to immediately stop the major increase in carbon in our atmosphere, but we can instead start to deflect that absorption of the heat into the ocean.

Don't you see? This is what we should invest our money in!

(note, this post is satire, please do not think I was actually serious about this)

 

[derekt75]

The thought just occurred to me... forget roadways, those are peanuts in the solar scope and possible land coverage... I am thinking even more grandiose. Solar Freaking Oceans!

I mean think about it, the earth is 2/3rd covered by water... all that water space just sitting there going to waste. I mean... even if we just use 1/3 of that space to cover the oceans (leaving the rest open for oceanic traveling) that would be an enormous amount of coverage enough to supply more power than we could possibly consume even going far into the future.

But power generation isn't everything... As you know, there is a global crisis, and one of the causes is melting polar ice caps (which reflect the suns energy) vs water growth (which absorbs the suns energy) is causing a dramatic heat increase on the planets surface. We might not be able to immediately stop the major increase in carbon in our atmosphere, but we can instead start to deflect that absorption of the heat into the ocean.

Don't you see? This is what we should invest our money in!

(note, this post is satire, please do not think I was actually serious about this)

and fresh water is scarce in some areas, so we should just add some reverse osmosis blocks to each of the solar powered tiles!

 

[chickensevil]

and fresh water is scarce in some areas, so we should just add some reverse osmosis blocks to each of the solar powered tiles!

Exactly! Now you are getting it!

 

[Johan]

and fresh water is scarce in some areas, so we should just add some reverse osmosis blocks to each of the solar powered tiles!

Don't forget about LEDs... Lots of LED. Make the ocean light up. Purty!

 

[Reykjavik]

Don't forget about LEDs... Lots of LED. Make the ocean light up. Purty!

And if we ever want to have tea, we can boil the oceans, all the tea has been sitting at the Bottom of Boston Harbor just waiting for the water to get hot.

 

[Mookuh]

On a slightly more serious note than the last few posters, it occured to me that one way or another, these roadways will be able to tell if there is a car on top of them, and how fast it's going.
Now, the current state of technology permits pretty good localisation of specific cars already. With the roads being able to exactly sense the speed of each vehicle traveling on them, though, the authorities would be stupid, almost remiss, if they did't use that information to issue automated speeding tickets or similar things.
I am by no means an expert, my current understanding is that almost every modern car or other vehicle is traceable by GPS. But is that information available to everyone who is gonna try hard enough?

 

[djplong]

Unless someone installs a tracker or transmitter on your car, GPS communication is ONE WAY - a receiver ONLY.

At best, these days, for a connected car to "have it's logs examined", police need a warrant. Cars that are NOT 'connected' *do* have something similar to a 'black box' (all cars since some time in the 1990s) that is used for diagnostics. Again, police need a warrant to be able to examine those logs. Even in cars that EZ-PASS tags, police are NOT allowed to troll the data to find speeders and issue tickets.

 

[doug]

On a slightly more serious note than the last few posters, it occured to me that one way or another, these roadways will be able to tell if there is a car on top of them, and how fast it's going.

Current roads already have inductive loops in them that count the number of cars that go by and measure their speed.

 

[NigelM]

The thought just occurred to me... forget roadways, those are peanuts in the solar scope and possible land coverage... I am thinking even more grandiose. Solar Freaking Oceans!

It's already being done, albeit on a smaller level. Covering the oceans though would prevent light getting to the algae that absorb more CO2 than all the world's rain forests combined.

 

[Mookuh]

Current roads already have inductive loops in them that count the number of cars that go by and measure their speed.

But that's just spot checks. A solar roadway would be able to track the movement of everything on top of it in real time. If you combine the info with some sort of identification (like cameras on every entry point), you would very easily have a system to track everything that moves on it. Given the total (expected) cost of the proposed Solar Roadways, adding the cameras or another way to identify vehicles seems doable cost-wise , and with the effort that go into surveillance by the authorities these days, it doesn't seem like a very unlikely scenario. On the plus side, it'd help in alerting ambulances etc. to a crash immediately and could possibly help in analyzing who did what wrong (e.g. who went too fast) in case of a crash.

 

[doug]

But that's just spot checks. A solar roadway would be able to track the movement of everything on top of it in real time. If you combine the info with some sort of identification (like cameras on every entry point), you would very easily have a system to track everything that moves on it. Given the total (expected) cost of the proposed Solar Roadways, adding the cameras or another way to identify vehicles seems doable cost-wise , and with the effort that go into surveillance by the authorities these days, it doesn't seem like a very unlikely scenario. On the plus side, it'd help in alerting ambulances etc. to a crash immediately and could possibly help in analyzing who did what wrong (e.g. who went too fast) in case of a crash.

Periodic spot checking is all you really need since eventually all traffic passes those points. Again this is already in use.

Cameras alone are certainly more cost effective than cameras and "Solar Roadways", and again traffic cameras are already in use.

 

[rolosrevenge]

Current roads already have inductive loops in them that count the number of cars that go by and measure their speed.

View attachment 52975

But a far, far better way of knowing what's on the road is by using a SmartSensor HD

 

[chickensevil]

But a far, far better way of knowing what's on the road is by using a SmartSensor HD

So THAT'S what those white boxes are! I never would have guessed... They have them all up and down I95 here in the DC area.

- - - Updated - - -

Note I am not suggesting that is exactly the brand and fidelity that they are pointing out, just that there are white boxes on light poles "angled" toward the lanes which I assume is how they are getting their traffic data

 

[rolosrevenge]

So THAT'S what those white boxes are! I never would have guessed... They have them all up and down I95 here in the DC area.

- - - Updated - - -

Note I am not suggesting that is exactly the brand and fidelity that they are pointing out, just that there are white boxes on light poles "angled" toward the lanes which I assume is how they are getting their traffic data

Actually, if the white boxes look like that, they are from Wavetronix, there are no other sensors that look like that. I used to be an intern for them, traveling about the country testing them on strange roadways, and now I see them EVERYWHERE. I can never unsee the SmartSensors...

 

[chickensevil]

Actually, if the white boxes look like that, they are from Wavetronix, there are no other sensors that look like that. I used to be an intern for them, traveling about the country testing them on strange roadways, and now I see them EVERYWHERE. I can never unsee the SmartSensors...

Then when will google maps incorporate individual lane fidelity and actual traffic speed averages in their map? Cause that would be awesome! Do you know how much that would help with alerting drivers of an accident ahead, and which lane was blocked off or even how many lanes are blocked?

Anyway, this tech is really cool and I love how much traffic data has already changed my life in terms of commuting.

 

[c041v]

Current roads already have inductive loops in them that count the number of cars that go by and measure their speed.

View attachment 52975

Just one of their many functions! They also trigger intersection signals and any other warning signs/lights on roadways. I've had a few of these installed on highways I've worked on. Traffic Engineering is actually a very interesting branch that I wish I had more exposure to. I don't miss counting cars in left turn lanes at intersections as a student though.

I actually drafted a large response to the whole solar roadway concept, but have not had the time to properly vet it. Some of the issues have already been addressed in thinks thread, but there's some juicy engineering aspects that have not. That Australian guy was completely over the top and actually ruined the word "ridiculous" for me. I will try to find some time this weekend to clean it up and then launch the megapost.

 

[rolosrevenge]

Then when will google maps incorporate individual lane fidelity and actual traffic speed averages in their map? Cause that would be awesome! Do you know how much that would help with alerting drivers of an accident ahead, and which lane was blocked off or even how many lanes are blocked?

Anyway, this tech is really cool and I love how much traffic data has already changed my life in terms of commuting.

I don't know, but the sensors know it and are transmitting it to the respective DOTs

 

[chickensevil]

I actually drafted a large response to the whole solar roadway concept, but have not had the time to properly vet it. Some of the issues have already been addressed in thinks thread, but there's some juicy engineering aspects that have not. That Australian guy was completely over the top and actually ruined the word "ridiculous" for me. I will try to find some time this weekend to clean it up and then launch the megapost.

I look forward to this response, since I keep hearing arguments from both sides on this and unfortunately for my simple mind (at least simple minded on this subject) both sides seem to make sense to me... Which has made it all the more confusing since I don't know which side to believe now.