1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:06,400 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, everyone, welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren bold Day. We're going 4 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:22,919 Speaker 1: to talk about solar freaking roadways. Solar freaking roadways. Yeah, 5 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: you may have seen the video or perhaps even contributed 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: to the Indie Go go uh campaign campaign. That's the 7 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: word I was looking for. We're going to start off 8 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: strong here, people, when I can't think of the word 9 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: for campaign now. The reason why we're doing this is 10 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: we had two different listeners ask us on Facebook, Kevin 11 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:44,520 Speaker 1: and Sherry, Right. They both wanted to hear about this proposal, 12 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:47,160 Speaker 1: find out what's the deal behind it, what's the technology 13 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,640 Speaker 1: behind it? Is it in fact a realistic approach? So 14 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: because there's been a lot of hype about it, So 15 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 1: thank you guys much for writing in. There's been controversy. 16 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:57,200 Speaker 1: I think it's a safe word to use. There's been, 17 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: at least, if nothing else, a spirited debate eight both 18 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 1: sides of the debate Internet Yeah, no, both sides have 19 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,480 Speaker 1: said debate. Both the the proponents and the critics of 20 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:15,080 Speaker 1: said solar roadways have been um at times passionate on 21 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: the internet. Yeah, that's kind of my gentle tiptoeing around 22 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: the edgeway of saying that there's been some fairly reactionary 23 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 1: responses on both sides. We're going to cut through all 24 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: that and tell you what's going on, hopefully, and I 25 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:30,959 Speaker 1: you know, both of us are human people who also 26 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: have opinions about things. But we're going to try very 27 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: hard to be as objective as possible, and then at 28 00:01:36,959 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 1: the end we will spew our opinions all over the podcast. 29 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: So fair warning, yes, but at any rate, let's start 30 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: off with just some fun facts. Okay, fun facts about highways. 31 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 1: Fun facts about highways in the United States, to be specific. So, 32 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 1: the US highway system has four million miles of roads, 33 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: which is about six million, four hundred thousand kilometers. Not 34 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: many people know this, but Lauren capable of doing miles 35 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: to kilometer conversions in her head on the fly. It's amazing. 36 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: So that's according to the National Atlas of the United States. Now, 37 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:14,000 Speaker 1: the interstate highway system accounts for only one percent of 38 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: all highway mileage but carries twenty of total vehicle miles 39 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: of travel, which to me says take the surface streets. 40 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:28,040 Speaker 1: That's what I usually do. Yeah, at any rate. The highways, 41 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,240 Speaker 1: although they are a great way of moving lots of 42 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: cars through very quickly. Uh that that's not you know, 43 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,080 Speaker 1: more of the roads in our our country are surface streets. 44 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:41,800 Speaker 1: They're not like these big interstates certainly, but but um, 45 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:46,400 Speaker 1: but highways are are pretty they cover a wide surface area. Nonetheless, 46 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: the average the average width of a highway lane is 47 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 1: eleven feet, which is three point three five Wow. It 48 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 1: works on feet de meters too, It's pretty amazing. Okay. 49 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: Uh So that means that if you were to add 50 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: up all the this area that these roads are covering 51 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: in the United States, you would end up somewhere around 52 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: seventeen thousand, nine hundred twenty nine square miles in the 53 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: United States, which is forty thousand, four hundred and thirty 54 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: six square kilometers. Crap. You can do area too if 55 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:19,519 Speaker 1: you add another paved services, so we're talking about things 56 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: like parking lots, sidewalks, bike lanes, this kind of thing. 57 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:29,240 Speaker 1: It ends up being around twenty five thousand square miles 58 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: of area or seven hundred square kilometers, right. So that's 59 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,360 Speaker 1: a lot of space, and it's not an insignificant amount. 60 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: It's doing an important job, you know, because some people 61 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:44,480 Speaker 1: will say that's space, that's not doing anything. No, it 62 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,520 Speaker 1: is in fact doing something wasted space. It's certainly providing 63 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 1: a service. Yes, it provides us a route to get 64 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: from one point to another point, specifically in the vehicles 65 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:58,240 Speaker 1: that we all depend upon, without very much ruining our 66 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: our vehicles or our shoe is or right. It's it's 67 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 1: made up of stuff. That is, it's got traction to it. 68 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: It's meant to be uh as efficient a system as 69 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: we can really do with with a lot of passive systems. 70 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:15,280 Speaker 1: Like it's a very passive system, yes, and but it's 71 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: relatively inexpensive and pretty functional. But what would happen if 72 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:22,920 Speaker 1: we can make this stuff do double duty? What if 73 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: instead of just being a way, you know, the the 74 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 1: platform upon which our vehicles travel, it could also help 75 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: generate energy and offset our need for generating power in 76 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:38,039 Speaker 1: other ways. What if we could perhaps turn the entire 77 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: road system of the United States into a giant solar farm. 78 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,080 Speaker 1: In other words, we replaced the roads with solar panels, 79 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: were still driving on them, but now not only are 80 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 1: we all that flat space is being put to further use, 81 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: or even hilly space well, relatively flat space. Yeah, so 82 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 1: that's where the idea of solar roadways kicked in. UH. 83 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: And then to get specific, you have a husband and 84 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,120 Speaker 1: wife team, Scott and Julie Brussa, who are the the 85 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:14,039 Speaker 1: people behind solar roadways, right, Scott is by trade an 86 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,680 Speaker 1: electrical engineer and Julie as a counselor. And apparently it 87 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:22,320 Speaker 1: was Julie's idea to put solar panels on roads. That 88 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 1: was her. She just said, you know, she and her 89 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:29,799 Speaker 1: husband were having a discussion about UH, climate change, about 90 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: human human contributions to climate change, about pollution, about the 91 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 1: fact that a lot of that pollution comes from our 92 00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: dependence upon fossil fuels, and she said, well, you know, 93 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,039 Speaker 1: I realized that solar panel farms like these are not 94 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:45,360 Speaker 1: the most efficient ways of getting energy. We've talked about 95 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: that on this show before. That even if you're talking 96 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 1: like state of the art, top of the line laboratory conditions, 97 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: at most you're hitting under ideal conditions. Reality, it's closer 98 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:03,280 Speaker 1: to under good conditions and probably less than that for 99 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,919 Speaker 1: your average performance. So you're losing a lot of the 100 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,880 Speaker 1: energy that's hitting those panels, and you're not necessarily generating 101 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:12,160 Speaker 1: a lot of electricity from the energy you're bringing in. 102 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:14,640 Speaker 1: But what if we had a lot of them? Yeah, 103 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:17,440 Speaker 1: what if we were able to instead of clearing out 104 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: land in order to make a solar farm, what if 105 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: we were able to utilize that space, the spaces that 106 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:26,800 Speaker 1: we already have, you know, using robust panels that can 107 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 1: withstand the traffic. Right, and so Scott, in his various videos, 108 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:35,719 Speaker 1: there are several videos that Scott Brusaw is in where 109 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,360 Speaker 1: he talks about this idea, said that he initially kind 110 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,000 Speaker 1: of laughed at the idea, and then he thought, well, 111 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,280 Speaker 1: how would I, as an engineer, how would I go 112 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: about trying to make a practical way of implementing her solution? 113 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: And that was the way solar roadways were born. This 114 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,360 Speaker 1: was not no this you may have only just heard 115 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:57,240 Speaker 1: about this, but they've been working on this since the 116 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:01,320 Speaker 1: mid two thousand's, so two six typelieve, I think you're right. Yeah, 117 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:03,960 Speaker 1: So they started brainstorming these different ways. They came up 118 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 1: with this, uh, this solar panel roadway approach, but it 119 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: does mean that they had to think of other stuff 120 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: bed and and they also went beyond just solar panels, right, oh, right, 121 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,280 Speaker 1: you know, they're they're not just there to collect energy. 122 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:20,960 Speaker 1: They would also have you know, microprocessors in them and 123 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: LEDs which would allow you to, uh, you know, like 124 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 1: like change the lanes and on a highway based on 125 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: traffic patterns, or move parking spots around in a parking lot. 126 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: Right like so for example, uh, the street that is 127 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: near my neighborhood is a three lane road and it 128 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: has two reversible or has a reversible lane in the center. 129 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: Reversible lanes mean that some parts of the day traffic 130 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,440 Speaker 1: is allowed to go in one direction, and in another 131 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 1: part of the day traffic is allowed to go in 132 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 1: the opposite direction. And they just end up designating that 133 00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: with there's a sign that hangs above the road that 134 00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: either of you an arrow saying yes you can drive 135 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: in this lane X say red X that says please 136 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,440 Speaker 1: don't do that. By the way, I cannot tell you 137 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: how many times have encountered people who absolutely have no 138 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 1: idea how reversible lanes work. They treat it like it's 139 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:16,200 Speaker 1: a turning lane. They're a little bit terrifying. It is 140 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: absolutely terrifying. You know, driving in the center lane on 141 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: that road is something of a crap shoot at any rate. 142 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 1: Using this approach, you could actually have the information on 143 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: the road itself. Those led lights could spell out which 144 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 1: lanes were permissible to use during what parts of the day, 145 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 1: so you could change it on the fly. Responds to 146 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:41,520 Speaker 1: dynamic condition, so if traffic is suddenly very heavy coming 147 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: from one direction versus the other, you could change the 148 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:47,200 Speaker 1: lanes in a safe way. Or like you said, you 149 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: could do things like in a parking lot, designate different 150 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: types of spaces. Perhaps if you were expecting to have 151 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 1: a big motorcycle convention, like some parts of the country do, 152 00:08:58,160 --> 00:08:59,960 Speaker 1: then you could end up having a bunch of motor 153 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:03,320 Speaker 1: cycle parking spots as opposed to full sized car spots. 154 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: That kind of stuff. And it's interesting because it means 155 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:07,920 Speaker 1: you could change things based upon whatever conditions were at 156 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:10,280 Speaker 1: the time. That's not the only thing these could do though. 157 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: Oh yeah. They also proposed to incorporate heating elements so 158 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: that you could melt any kind of any kind of 159 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 1: ice or snow on the roadway, thus being able to 160 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:26,319 Speaker 1: prevent terrible, terrible driving conditions. Right sure, And you wouldn't 161 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,400 Speaker 1: have to use a plow or actually you can't use 162 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 1: a plow on one of these roads, because it did, 163 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:36,719 Speaker 1: you'd end up scraping the glass, the glass covering yeah. Um. 164 00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 1: But but also um providing providing an infrastructure for carrying 165 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: that collected energy collected energy and big technical quotation marks 166 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 1: um to to get it to places that need it. So, 167 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:53,400 Speaker 1: in other words, there'd be a kind of a corridor 168 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:56,440 Speaker 1: that would run alongside the road which would help deal 169 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: with the runoff from that aforementioned snow and ice. Yes, yes, 170 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 1: you would have of two parts of that corridor. One 171 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:03,880 Speaker 1: part would be a storm drain which would even include 172 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:07,040 Speaker 1: perhaps a filtration system and pumps to move water to 173 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:09,320 Speaker 1: where it might actually be used. So you could in 174 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 1: theory treat the water on site on the road. Essentially 175 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 1: as as it's running off, you can treat it so 176 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: it ends up being useful, and then pump it someplace 177 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 1: like an aquifer or for agricultural purposes, or to another 178 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:28,439 Speaker 1: water treatment facility if the water is particularly and then 179 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:30,839 Speaker 1: that's the technical term. And then you could have the 180 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:34,840 Speaker 1: cable corridor, which would allow you to put power cables 181 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:38,200 Speaker 1: so that it could uh transmit the collected energy to 182 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,800 Speaker 1: some other system. All of this, by the way, it 183 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: sounds like we're being vague. It's because right now the 184 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:48,680 Speaker 1: team is really focusing on the solar panel part and 185 00:10:48,679 --> 00:10:51,920 Speaker 1: and all of this is is kind of interesting. Other 186 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:55,840 Speaker 1: ideas that they're drawing into it. Um yea also reaching 187 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:58,440 Speaker 1: further out into the future, incorporating a lot more of 188 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,000 Speaker 1: of smart elements to the road ways of you know, 189 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:03,959 Speaker 1: doing things like if, um, if a kid is crossing 190 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: the street, having the street interact with your car to 191 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:10,160 Speaker 1: tell you there's a kid up there, don't hit that kid, right, 192 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:12,440 Speaker 1: and maybe even the part of the street the kid 193 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:14,959 Speaker 1: is on lights up so you can see that the 194 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 1: physically right. So yeah, it would have to have some 195 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,559 Speaker 1: sort of pressure sensors in there that that would somehow 196 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:22,959 Speaker 1: be able to differentiate when a kid is on there 197 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,920 Speaker 1: versus say someone on a bike or a car or 198 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:30,400 Speaker 1: you know. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right, right, 199 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:33,280 Speaker 1: But you know, all kinds of interesting stuff like that 200 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,360 Speaker 1: is stuff that they talk about in their promotional material. Yeah, 201 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 1: and they obviously, in order to get support because it 202 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:45,320 Speaker 1: was an indigo go campaign, which means it's crowdfunded, you know, 203 00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:48,840 Speaker 1: they were asking people to to contribute money to this 204 00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 1: project so that they could test the feasibility of it. 205 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:55,160 Speaker 1: Keep in mind, this is to test the feasibility, not 206 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:58,880 Speaker 1: saying that this is going to to launch them into 207 00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:01,440 Speaker 1: implementing this on a i'd scale. We'll get into more 208 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:05,679 Speaker 1: about that in a second. But um, it also uh 209 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: was a way of saying, hey, look, we can improve 210 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: our infrastructure in multiple ways. If there is a damage 211 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:15,439 Speaker 1: a damaged panel, someone could pop out there, knock a 212 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:18,160 Speaker 1: panel out, put a new panel in, and they're done. 213 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: It's none of this put a big sheet of metal 214 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:24,120 Speaker 1: over a pothole business that happens in Atlanta all the time. 215 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:27,679 Speaker 1: Or that we'd be able to take all the power 216 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,400 Speaker 1: cables and telephone cables and take them off of suspended 217 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:35,080 Speaker 1: lines and bury them within this roadway, yeah, in that 218 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,760 Speaker 1: cable corridor, which means that when you have really bad weather, 219 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:41,839 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about those power lines being 220 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:45,280 Speaker 1: snapped by ice or something and then becoming a hazard 221 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:47,840 Speaker 1: to anyone who happens to be walking by. Now, in 222 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:53,079 Speaker 1: order to go from this sort of brainstorming proposal idea 223 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:57,920 Speaker 1: to reality, they they noticed that there were some pretty 224 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:02,679 Speaker 1: significant challenges. Sure, um, you know, first of all, you 225 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:06,320 Speaker 1: photovoltaics are very delicate. I'm so you're going to need 226 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:10,359 Speaker 1: a really strong surface in order to protect them from 227 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: you know, trucks, Yes, exactly. Yeah, you have to have 228 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:18,160 Speaker 1: something that was going to keep them from breaking under 229 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:22,320 Speaker 1: the the consistent pressure they would be under from vehicles 230 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 1: running over them. But the early if you're talking about 231 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,680 Speaker 1: like a highway where you've got hundreds of thousands of 232 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:32,120 Speaker 1: vehicles in any given month, and some of those being 233 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:36,760 Speaker 1: incredibly heavy, like trucks pulling huge amounts of cargo, you've 234 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:38,920 Speaker 1: got to have something that's gonna withstand that kind of 235 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:41,640 Speaker 1: that kind of wear and tear, right in order to 236 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:44,280 Speaker 1: accomplish this, and also you know, have it be transparent 237 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: so that it can also collect sunlight. As it turns 238 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:50,400 Speaker 1: out that if you made it really super strong but 239 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:53,680 Speaker 1: it was opaque, the solar panel part has has problems. 240 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:57,880 Speaker 1: Right um, tempered glass they figured is the best way 241 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,679 Speaker 1: to do this. The problem one of the problems with 242 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:05,280 Speaker 1: tempered glass is that you can't really paint on it. Yeah, 243 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:07,240 Speaker 1: so that's why they came up with the idea of 244 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 1: using the L e eds to demonstrate light. That meant 245 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:11,880 Speaker 1: that they were going to have to pick some pretty 246 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:13,560 Speaker 1: bright L e d s. We'll talk about that when 247 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:17,400 Speaker 1: we get to the criticisms part. Sure, Um, but yeah, 248 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,800 Speaker 1: then also they wanted to make sure that the light 249 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:24,520 Speaker 1: was going to pass cleanly through that glass. The glass 250 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,520 Speaker 1: needs to be clear. It can't be you know, if 251 00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:29,440 Speaker 1: if you have a colored glass, that that's telling you 252 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:33,040 Speaker 1: immediately that there are certain that you're not going to 253 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: get there. Yeah, they're not going to go through. So 254 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:39,480 Speaker 1: you want that to be clear glass. And it needs 255 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:43,320 Speaker 1: to be arranged in a way that the physical arrangement 256 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,840 Speaker 1: of any kind of coding on top of photovoltakes is 257 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: going to have very much to do with the way 258 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: that light refracts and and reflects down through it. Yeah, 259 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:56,120 Speaker 1: So it's that ends up affecting the the efficiency of 260 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,520 Speaker 1: that particular solar panel. They said that these solar panels 261 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:02,920 Speaker 1: would be a on fift efficient although as far as 262 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:05,640 Speaker 1: I know, no independent testing has been done of the 263 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:07,800 Speaker 1: solar panels, not that I'm aware of, although they do 264 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:12,640 Speaker 1: currently only have a very small test patch. Uh yeah, 265 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: speaking of I mean, you know, the road systems, like 266 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 1: Jonathan talked about at the top of the show, are big. 267 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,600 Speaker 1: You've got a lot of them. Yeah, and so one 268 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:26,240 Speaker 1: of the big challenges that they really haven't addressed yet. Uh. 269 00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:28,520 Speaker 1: You know, they're looking at it from the positive perspective, 270 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 1: which I totally understand. They're like, look at this, this 271 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,080 Speaker 1: is going to create millions of jobs. But millions of 272 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: jobs means you have to pay those people. Uh, and 273 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,360 Speaker 1: it also means that you're going to run into a 274 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: lot of equipment costs and manufacturing costs, materials. What are 275 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 1: you going to do while you are retrofitting a highway? 276 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:49,840 Speaker 1: You know, what what exactly is going to take place 277 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,440 Speaker 1: with this? Because we don't even know what their proposal 278 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: is for the replacement part. We don't know doesn't mean 279 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: that they're going to place solar panels on top of 280 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:01,240 Speaker 1: pre existing infrastructure, are going to have to dig up 281 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,760 Speaker 1: all of the roads, right What where are people going 282 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,480 Speaker 1: to drive while that's going on? You know, there are 283 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:08,320 Speaker 1: a lot of questions here that are going to be 284 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 1: uh A big challenges. And then of course, you know 285 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:15,080 Speaker 1: there's cost, like we kind of just said, attached to 286 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:18,840 Speaker 1: all of this, not only logistical costs, but very real 287 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 1: money dollar costs, or as very real as money and 288 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:25,760 Speaker 1: dollars ever are right, that's an entirely different conversation that 289 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: we've also had but uh yeah, I mean these are 290 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 1: things that they had to take into account, all right. 291 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:38,440 Speaker 1: So the first prototype they built was a rectangular prototype. 292 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:40,440 Speaker 1: It was our square really because it was it was 293 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: twelve feet by twelve feet that's about three point seven meters. 294 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 1: Like cow, you're on the ball today, all right, So yeah, 295 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:49,520 Speaker 1: it was this. It was really to test the idea 296 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:53,800 Speaker 1: to to try the LEDs to create the microprocessors that 297 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:57,080 Speaker 1: communicate with each other. They do so wirelessly by the way, 298 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 1: they do this kind of messaging stem between them. Um, 299 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: the videos are pretty cool, like he showed, Uh, I 300 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: guess it's I assume it's his daughter who stands on 301 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 1: a panel that's separate from the the huge solar panel, 302 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:17,360 Speaker 1: the twelve foot one, and when she steps on it, 303 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:21,199 Speaker 1: it creates that flashing pattern on the panel she steps on, 304 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:25,240 Speaker 1: and then it spells out slowed down on the test panel, yeah, 305 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:28,000 Speaker 1: the giant one. Then he also did things like created 306 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: a maze, a little like Pacman style maze that kids 307 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:33,280 Speaker 1: could run through on this solar panel, which is really 308 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,639 Speaker 1: showing that the LEDs could in fact show yeah, they 309 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: could be all sorts of different patterns. Um. So that 310 00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:42,719 Speaker 1: was the first prototype. But that of course is not 311 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:47,120 Speaker 1: what the the current panel looks like. The current panels 312 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:50,480 Speaker 1: are hexagonal in shape. I'll talk about that in a second. Now, 313 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:52,800 Speaker 1: they decided to use glass, like we said, to be 314 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,639 Speaker 1: the protective layer because it let's light pass through and 315 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,440 Speaker 1: the compression strength is good. Now they keep on saying 316 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:03,399 Speaker 1: it's somewhere between steel and stainless steel for compression. I 317 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,120 Speaker 1: keep in mind, there are lots of different types of strength, right, 318 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:10,520 Speaker 1: There's tensile strength, there's compressive strength, there's the you know 319 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:14,320 Speaker 1: how how impact sort of strength. There's all these kind 320 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:16,600 Speaker 1: of different approaches that you have to look at. And 321 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:18,320 Speaker 1: in fact, they needed to find a glass that was 322 00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:23,520 Speaker 1: going to be shatter proof, which not that unusual. I mean, 323 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,439 Speaker 1: we've seen bulletproof glass, so it's not like this kind 324 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:29,840 Speaker 1: of stuff doesn't exist. Sure, And and tempering glass is 325 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:32,120 Speaker 1: they talked about it on the site and it's one 326 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:35,160 Speaker 1: of the things that they get very right. I think, 327 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:37,520 Speaker 1: and as far as I know about material science, that 328 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:42,359 Speaker 1: that the tempering process does more or less, uh, that 329 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 1: that thing of of making things very strong and can 330 00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:49,560 Speaker 1: also involve you know, shatter resistant coatings or you know 331 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,680 Speaker 1: the kind of glass that's used for example, in car 332 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:56,000 Speaker 1: wind shields to uh that that will crumble rather than 333 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:58,640 Speaker 1: charting right right, you won't end up with these these 334 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 1: incredibly sharp yards of glass. You would have this sort 335 00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:07,239 Speaker 1: of glass rubble that would be a pain to clean up, 336 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:10,199 Speaker 1: but not so dangerous, yes, less less dangerous. Um. And 337 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:12,400 Speaker 1: they also needed to pick one that they could add 338 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 1: a texture to the top of so that vehicles could 339 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:18,760 Speaker 1: have traction from them. That's kind of important because if 340 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,439 Speaker 1: you would imagine just driving a vehicle over, you know, 341 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:25,680 Speaker 1: like a glass mirror, that would suck. Not to be fair, 342 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:29,719 Speaker 1: rubber against glass is that you get some traction. But 343 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,080 Speaker 1: add water to that because I don't know if you've 344 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: been outside, but sometimes it rains, and sometimes it rains 345 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:39,760 Speaker 1: when you need to drive somewhere occasionally. So they were 346 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:44,240 Speaker 1: looking at raising like they have actually another hexagonal pattern 347 00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: on top of this giant hexagon that is repeated that 348 00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:55,119 Speaker 1: creates the texture so that it helps tires gripped the road. Um. 349 00:19:55,240 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 1: They claimed that the gripping tests were outperformed asphalt. Uh. 350 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:03,840 Speaker 1: I don't know exactly how all those tests were conducted, 351 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: but that's that's the claim. Yeah. I also believe that. 352 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:09,760 Speaker 1: They claim that the the pattern of the glass acts 353 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,640 Speaker 1: like a like a prism to help direct the light 354 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 1: down into the photovoltaics beneath it. And as for the 355 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,120 Speaker 1: l d s, those are light emitting diodes. We talked 356 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: about that in the past. Diodes are very basic electronic components, 357 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,439 Speaker 1: one of the basic components in electronics. So anyone who 358 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:28,760 Speaker 1: happens to have worked with electronics, like if you build 359 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,080 Speaker 1: a circuit, you've probably at some time or another wired 360 00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:35,679 Speaker 1: an LED to some sort of circuit. They don't require 361 00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:38,080 Speaker 1: a lot of energy. They can put off a fairly 362 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,440 Speaker 1: bright light depending upon the LED that you're using. Um. 363 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 1: Scott Bruso also claims that the prism like nature of 364 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,160 Speaker 1: those hexagons that Lauren was just talking about also allow 365 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,119 Speaker 1: the l d s to project light out six different ways. 366 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,160 Speaker 1: I have no idea what that means. I think he's 367 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:57,160 Speaker 1: talking about, Um, you know, for for that pattern, Oh, 368 00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:02,640 Speaker 1: I see, I see capacity right right, Um, it's certainly interesting. Uh. Anyway, 369 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:06,439 Speaker 1: then we got the heating element, right, which are you know, 370 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 1: similar to the wires that might run through your your 371 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:12,679 Speaker 1: rear windshield that that help you defrost your car in 372 00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:16,399 Speaker 1: the winter and uh, he says. Bruce Saw says that 373 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 1: the tests showed that heating the heating element works well 374 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: and can prevent snow and ice from forming on the 375 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:25,920 Speaker 1: road itself. They show off a a single solar panel 376 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:29,639 Speaker 1: hexabon test photos, yes, surrounded by others covered in snow 377 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: that have not had the heating element turned on. Uh. 378 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:36,119 Speaker 1: Then you would have some form of other sensors in 379 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 1: the in the panel, because you would have to have 380 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: them in order to detect pressure for the other element. 381 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,560 Speaker 1: We were talking about where an animal or child or 382 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,880 Speaker 1: something else is in the road, and thus the road 383 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,080 Speaker 1: is detecting that and alerting the drivers to it so 384 00:21:49,119 --> 00:21:51,520 Speaker 1: that they can prepare themselves. Like I can see this 385 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:55,200 Speaker 1: being really useful in lots of different ways. Like in California, 386 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: my wife and I went on a road trip where 387 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:02,399 Speaker 1: we went down a road that frequently would get covered 388 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,080 Speaker 1: up by by mud slides during the rain, and it 389 00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,560 Speaker 1: was pouring down rain, and sure enough we had to 390 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:12,560 Speaker 1: skirt around a couple of mud slides. And when you've 391 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,000 Speaker 1: got a precipitous drop to the Pacific Ocean on the 392 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:18,160 Speaker 1: other side of it, that's a somewhat of a nerve 393 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:22,800 Speaker 1: wracking experience. Now, I mentioned that the microprocessors had little 394 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: WiFi elements in them that allow them to talk to 395 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 1: each other communication. Yeah, the important part of that would be. 396 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:31,439 Speaker 1: One of the important parts of that, besides sending the 397 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:35,120 Speaker 1: messages so that the right messages are displayed to drivers 398 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:38,720 Speaker 1: so that they're alerted to changing conditions, is that if 399 00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,360 Speaker 1: a panel were to malfunction, let's say it was hit 400 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:47,879 Speaker 1: by lightning or some other thing damaged it. Maybe a 401 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: person who knows there some issues with that as well. 402 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:54,639 Speaker 1: But let's say something damages a a one of these hexagons. 403 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:58,720 Speaker 1: What's going on in the microprocessors is that they're constantly 404 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:02,640 Speaker 1: sending out little signal to each other. Hey are you there? 405 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:04,880 Speaker 1: Oh you're there. Hey are you there? Oh you're there. 406 00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:07,880 Speaker 1: So if one of them stops responding, then the rest 407 00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:09,440 Speaker 1: can send a message down the line to get a 408 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:11,720 Speaker 1: technician out there to replace that guy. Yeah, so the 409 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,160 Speaker 1: technician gets a message saying, hey, this one panel that's 410 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:19,080 Speaker 1: at mile marker seventy three, it's the third one over 411 00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:21,360 Speaker 1: from the edge of the road needs to be replaced. 412 00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,800 Speaker 1: They can go out there, uh, you know, the lane 413 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:28,639 Speaker 1: itself can actually help direct traffic around the work area. 414 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,200 Speaker 1: The worker could then pop the the dead panel out, 415 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,800 Speaker 1: put a new panel in, and program it with a 416 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:39,400 Speaker 1: little handheld computer device and supposedly be in and out 417 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:43,040 Speaker 1: in like ten minutes, and then take the broken solar 418 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: panel back for repairs. Um. At least that's the way 419 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:50,720 Speaker 1: it's being presented now. What they have actually created so 420 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,520 Speaker 1: far is this little test strip that I mentioned earlier, 421 00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:56,320 Speaker 1: a sort of parking lot outside of their workshop. It's 422 00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:01,479 Speaker 1: twelve ft wide by thirty six ft long, which is uh, 423 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:07,480 Speaker 1: I got three point seven by eleven. It's not a contest. Um. 424 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,200 Speaker 1: I've been looking ahead at those notes all podcasts long 425 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 1: and doing calculations in my head. Uh. This little this 426 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,640 Speaker 1: little test strip is is meant to be a tester, 427 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,040 Speaker 1: but it's a little environment for them to work at 428 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:22,639 Speaker 1: every everything from you know, from the stress tests to 429 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,960 Speaker 1: the electronic components functionality, making sure the heating elements are working, 430 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,280 Speaker 1: make sure the l e d s work. They've driven 431 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:33,439 Speaker 1: a smallish tractor across it to kind of demonstrate that 432 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,480 Speaker 1: it can withstand the pressure of a vehicle, but that's 433 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 1: it is a smallish tractor and it is not moving 434 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:41,840 Speaker 1: very quickly. That's not to say that they haven't done 435 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:45,359 Speaker 1: other tests, Oh, certainly. Yeah, I mean they've been working 436 00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:48,440 Speaker 1: on this project. They in fact received a few grants 437 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:54,320 Speaker 1: from the Department of Transportation and specifically the Federal Highway 438 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:59,080 Speaker 1: Administrations to I think along the lines of like seven 439 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,360 Speaker 1: hundred and fIF the thousand and then their Indigo their 440 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:08,200 Speaker 1: indiego Go project funded right right fund. Yeah, and let's 441 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:12,080 Speaker 1: talk about that Indiego Go campaign. Okay, So, so, like, 442 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: like we said, this project has been going on since 443 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:17,560 Speaker 1: about two thousand six, but it really went viral in 444 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,840 Speaker 1: when they opened up this indie Go Go campaign on 445 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,440 Speaker 1: April one, which is the day before Earth Day, which 446 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:29,359 Speaker 1: is very clever marketing. And uh. They talked all about 447 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: what this potential project could do in an ideal implementation. 448 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:38,439 Speaker 1: Their tagline um, which which I think is telling about 449 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:41,399 Speaker 1: many things about the project is i'll quote quote it 450 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 1: for you guys, solar panels that you can drive, park 451 00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: and walk on. They melt snow and cut greenhouse gases 452 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:52,280 Speaker 1: by question mark exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point triple 453 00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,639 Speaker 1: and taro bang. Yes. Yeah, that's pretty incredible. Yeah. They 454 00:25:55,800 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: they extended the campaign right as of this recording. We 455 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,400 Speaker 1: are recording this show on June. They have more than 456 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:07,800 Speaker 1: doubled their campaign goal of a million bucks and still 457 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:12,439 Speaker 1: have nine days left, so they've successfully funded, more than 458 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:17,359 Speaker 1: successful And um so what was that? What's that million 459 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:22,800 Speaker 1: dollars for? Exactly? Well, although the campaign page does suggest 460 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,679 Speaker 1: all of these huge possibilities for the future that we 461 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:29,600 Speaker 1: talked about earlier on in the show, that million dollars 462 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:33,400 Speaker 1: is really just for hiring an initial team of engineers 463 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,119 Speaker 1: and I quote to help us make a few needed 464 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:38,720 Speaker 1: tweaks in our product and streamline our process so that 465 00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:41,920 Speaker 1: we could go from prototype to production and they were 466 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:47,200 Speaker 1: hoping to go into production by the end of That's 467 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,920 Speaker 1: that's ambitious. Yeah, now that that's one way of putting it. 468 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,840 Speaker 1: That is incredibly ambitious because uh, you know, even if 469 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:57,720 Speaker 1: they produced, they then have to have a place to 470 00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: put them. Um, but we'll we'll talk more about that 471 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,920 Speaker 1: in a second. Yes, Um, so that this this campaign 472 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,359 Speaker 1: really went viral with the help of a particular video. 473 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,359 Speaker 1: At the very beginning of this podcast, I talked about 474 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:13,479 Speaker 1: solar freaking roadways. Roadway Roadways. Yeah. It was produced by 475 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:18,359 Speaker 1: the team and repeatedly uses the phrase solar freaking roadways. 476 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:20,720 Speaker 1: You probably have seen it if you. I know, it 477 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: went viral on Facebook. I saw it posted by a 478 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 1: lot of my friends. I sawt on on Tumblr and 479 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,040 Speaker 1: Twitter as well. Um, and it has in fact set 480 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,640 Speaker 1: an Indigogo record for the number of individual backers attached 481 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,320 Speaker 1: to a single project. Currently it is sitting at forty 482 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:39,399 Speaker 1: six thousand, three hundred and eighties seven, which in metric 483 00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:42,760 Speaker 1: is a lot. It's the same it's the same number, 484 00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:46,760 Speaker 1: same number. But you know, but but they they are 485 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,159 Speaker 1: all based on a specific person who's kept in a 486 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:54,679 Speaker 1: vault in Switzerland. Uh. Moving on to the critics, or, 487 00:27:55,320 --> 00:28:02,640 Speaker 1: as some have termed them, the hater. So here's the thing. 488 00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 1: You put any idea up online, people are going to 489 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,200 Speaker 1: respond to it in multiple ways some people. Some people 490 00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:13,640 Speaker 1: will likely be supportive, and some people will be critical, 491 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:18,200 Speaker 1: not not necessarily in an effort to be mean or nasty, 492 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:22,040 Speaker 1: although that often happens too. That's frequently a side effect. Yeah, 493 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,119 Speaker 1: but sometimes it's just to say, um, hang on. So 494 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: there have been multiple responses to this video. In the 495 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: are critical in nature, and again some of them are 496 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,240 Speaker 1: are more kind of measured and saying I do not 497 00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,720 Speaker 1: understand how they are going to achieve X. Some of 498 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:41,960 Speaker 1: them are a little more direct, saying there's no way 499 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,560 Speaker 1: they could possibly achieve X, and some of them are like, 500 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,000 Speaker 1: you are stupid if you think you can achieve X, 501 00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:49,920 Speaker 1: you're stupid, and your face is stupid, and your cat 502 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:54,080 Speaker 1: is stupid. Mom is stupid. Yeah. Yeah, So, at any rate, 503 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:57,360 Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about some of the criticisms or 504 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,600 Speaker 1: more of those former reasonable ones, less the cat thing. 505 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,920 Speaker 1: Some some of them got a little snarky, and we 506 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,479 Speaker 1: might as well. But at any rate, there's a website 507 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:10,760 Speaker 1: called gelot Nick that sent a request to another electrical engineer. 508 00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,960 Speaker 1: Because you may remember we said Scott Brussa's an electrical engineer. 509 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:19,040 Speaker 1: This electrical engineer is named David David Forbes, so this 510 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,600 Speaker 1: is we're talking about a person named Forbes, not the magazine, 511 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: and they asked them to evaluate this solar ROADWAYTE proposal, 512 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,280 Speaker 1: and Forbes listed some some concerns and said that the 513 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:32,000 Speaker 1: campaign was quote so flawed that I don't know where 514 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 1: to start end quote. Specifically, he pointed out the problem 515 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:39,320 Speaker 1: with costs, uh that installation time would be incredible and 516 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,600 Speaker 1: thus the expense for paying people to install all of 517 00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,680 Speaker 1: these panels into roads would also be incredible. Said that 518 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,880 Speaker 1: laying an asphalt road pretty much involves using an enormous 519 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: machine that does all the work for you. You just 520 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,080 Speaker 1: walk along to make sure the machine is still working properly. 521 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,880 Speaker 1: But this would take really intensive human labor. Yeah, but 522 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,800 Speaker 1: because laying down these hexagonal panels would be more of 523 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,960 Speaker 1: a human job less than a machine job. So if 524 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,200 Speaker 1: you're just talking about replacing one road, I mean just 525 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:10,960 Speaker 1: think of a typical road in your area, and imagine 526 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: having to replace all of that panel by panel with 527 00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:17,360 Speaker 1: these hexagonal panels. There are a couple of feet across, 528 00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:21,040 Speaker 1: less than a meter across, and you you have to 529 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:25,760 Speaker 1: replace the whole thing. That's significant, And we're talking about potentially, 530 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:29,000 Speaker 1: like if you're if you're taking the video at face value, 531 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 1: eventually replacing all roads that's and that's enormous. And that 532 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,000 Speaker 1: also includes the time it takes to either prep the 533 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,200 Speaker 1: existing road surface or to tear it, tear it right up. 534 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:44,200 Speaker 1: I would imagine you would have to tear it up. 535 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,400 Speaker 1: I cannot imagine just putting the panels on top of it, 536 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:52,320 Speaker 1: because where where are the power? Where's the power coming 537 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,600 Speaker 1: out of? Like if if these solar panels are collecting energy, 538 00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: how do you get that energy from the solar panel 539 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,440 Speaker 1: to anything else that would actually be useful? And they 540 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,880 Speaker 1: were also talking so much about about the trenching that 541 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,480 Speaker 1: the cable trenches and all in the runoff trenches and 542 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,960 Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Now, if somehow the hexagonal 543 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,840 Speaker 1: panels interlock so that they can become kind of a 544 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:18,040 Speaker 1: channel for power, I suppose you could end up having 545 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:21,360 Speaker 1: just one side of it, be the the section that 546 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: connects to a larger cable, and then the panels in 547 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:28,760 Speaker 1: that row would all feed. But I don't know that 548 00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: that's the case, because certainly the signals that's sending back 549 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: and forth are through this wireless micro processor. It's not 550 00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,040 Speaker 1: a circuit that's connected by edge to edge contact, So 551 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,840 Speaker 1: I don't think that's actually how it's happening, Which means 552 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 1: you have to wire each individual panel to your conduit 553 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,160 Speaker 1: that is taking the energy from the panel and sending 554 00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:52,680 Speaker 1: it to wherever it needs to go. All right, that's 555 00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:54,800 Speaker 1: before you even get to the point of where does 556 00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:57,640 Speaker 1: the power go? Because you can't just magically make it 557 00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,440 Speaker 1: go to where it needs to be. You actually have 558 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:03,560 Speaker 1: to build the infrastructure in their little transmission stations to 559 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,160 Speaker 1: collect that power and send it on and change the 560 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,200 Speaker 1: the voltage of it. I mean, that's why we have transformers, 561 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:12,760 Speaker 1: because we need to be able to you know, there's 562 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 1: lots of problems, and then there's the current issue voltage 563 00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 1: versus current lots of problems there. Um. That not to 564 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:21,960 Speaker 1: say that it's insurmount amountable or that they don't have 565 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,080 Speaker 1: answers to those those questions, but I haven't seen them. 566 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:28,160 Speaker 1: I have not either, So that would mean that you 567 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:29,800 Speaker 1: have to rip up all that road. So first you 568 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:32,400 Speaker 1: gotta rip up the road before you even do anything else. 569 00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,880 Speaker 1: Then you have to prepare the ground that you've just 570 00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:39,920 Speaker 1: ripped up for laying the solar panels down. And then 571 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:41,680 Speaker 1: you have to lay the solar panels down. So this 572 00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:47,440 Speaker 1: is a monumental job. Um. Also that that expense issue, 573 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:51,040 Speaker 1: you know, Okay, solar panels just from a material's cost, 574 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,280 Speaker 1: just the silicone in them, silicon, silicon, just the silicon 575 00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: in them is really expensive. Also, l ed s also glass, 576 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 1: all of these things. I mean, you're you're talking about 577 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:07,880 Speaker 1: twenty five thousand square miles of material. Ultimately you're talking 578 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,520 Speaker 1: about so just twenty square miles of glass would be expensive. 579 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: And yes, it gets less expensive per unit when you're 580 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:17,920 Speaker 1: buying in volume in bulk. But but but even so, 581 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,560 Speaker 1: that expense can only go down so far before you 582 00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:23,440 Speaker 1: finally have hit at cost, and it's never going to 583 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:27,640 Speaker 1: be less than that certainly, So there's that issue UM. 584 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,880 Speaker 1: And then Forbes brought up an interesting warning about UM 585 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 1: about the possibility if you have these complex electronics, Yes, 586 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:40,880 Speaker 1: what happens if someone whimsically decides to mess mess with that? Yeah, 587 00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: let's say that you have these microprocessors all communicating wirelessly 588 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,040 Speaker 1: to each other. What happens if a hacker is able 589 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:53,160 Speaker 1: to manipulate that system and is able to insert some 590 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:57,280 Speaker 1: malicious commands so that a command that normally would say 591 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:01,360 Speaker 1: slow down doesn't show up, or they end up changing 592 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: all the lanes, or they change the lanes looking like 593 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:08,080 Speaker 1: like that reversible lane. Example is telling you what if 594 00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,600 Speaker 1: from both sides of travel, they make it look like 595 00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,920 Speaker 1: that center lane is the appropriate lane. That's bad times. 596 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,240 Speaker 1: That's bad times, that's that's crash times, not good times. 597 00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:22,439 Speaker 1: So I mean whether or not that particular system would 598 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,640 Speaker 1: be easy to hack or not easy to hack, I 599 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 1: guarantee you, someone would try to do it, and eventually, 600 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:30,640 Speaker 1: if someone is determined enough, they would be able to 601 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:32,920 Speaker 1: do something if nothing else may be disrupted. So you 602 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,160 Speaker 1: just have a big, blank slate that you're driving on. 603 00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:37,759 Speaker 1: That alone would be difficult because you don't have any 604 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:39,960 Speaker 1: lanes at all. Then you just have an enormous wide 605 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:43,279 Speaker 1: road to be like, be like our highway system turned 606 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:45,600 Speaker 1: into all those country lanes I went on in Ireland 607 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:48,560 Speaker 1: where you're like, I don't even know if this is 608 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,480 Speaker 1: for two way traffic or this is the thing that 609 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,440 Speaker 1: Forbes did not bring up that that that I remember seeing. 610 00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:58,680 Speaker 1: But but what if you just got a blue screen? Yeah? Yeah, 611 00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:02,759 Speaker 1: if essentially, what if you're the processors crash and but 612 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,719 Speaker 1: now presumably if you had maybe just one crash, you 613 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:09,560 Speaker 1: would get that, you know, the person or the entity 614 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,000 Speaker 1: that overseesian and the whole thing. But if you're talking 615 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,440 Speaker 1: about something that ends up perhaps affecting a wide stretch 616 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,239 Speaker 1: of road, then you've got some serious problems. And then yeah, 617 00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,719 Speaker 1: sending someone out to reset a single panel, that's and 618 00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: then making sure that person is safe while they are 619 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,040 Speaker 1: doing it, I mean, it's this is not necessarily easy. 620 00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:31,040 Speaker 1: Other critics brought up lots of other concerns, like traction, 621 00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:34,880 Speaker 1: what happens when the glass gets wet um Some people 622 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:38,719 Speaker 1: talked about the glasses resilience to scratches, So you know, 623 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:42,080 Speaker 1: it's not just rubber that's having those roads. It's dirt 624 00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:46,319 Speaker 1: and sand and weird gritty particles in the you know, 625 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:50,319 Speaker 1: claws of animals whatever, So that ends up getting up, 626 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:52,720 Speaker 1: ends up getting rubbed in as the as the tires 627 00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:56,160 Speaker 1: go over the road. Sand especially could cause scratches and 628 00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:58,840 Speaker 1: the glass because sand is made of glass yep, and 629 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,040 Speaker 1: ends up possibly making it more opaque, which means that 630 00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:04,399 Speaker 1: less light can actually get through or at the very 631 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:07,720 Speaker 1: least bouncing around light in ways that are not ideal 632 00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:10,719 Speaker 1: to getting it down to the photovoltaic layers. So then 633 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,719 Speaker 1: your your energy collection becomes less efficient. Keep in mind 634 00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,000 Speaker 1: that one of the big claims we didn't really mention this, 635 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:18,840 Speaker 1: but that one of the big claims of this is 636 00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,520 Speaker 1: that if this were deployed throughout the entire United States 637 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,440 Speaker 1: and did replace all those paved areas we had talked about, 638 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:28,160 Speaker 1: according to the claim, we would be producing three times 639 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:32,000 Speaker 1: the amount of energy we currently consume. So that's not 640 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:34,040 Speaker 1: to say that we would suddenly be in an energy 641 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,280 Speaker 1: surplus and we'd have more energy than we need, because 642 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:40,200 Speaker 1: as we've all seen, we'll we'll use that surplus. We 643 00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:45,600 Speaker 1: find ways we don't. We don't suddenly have a bounty. 644 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:48,200 Speaker 1: We just have a larger pool that we work in 645 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:54,440 Speaker 1: at any rate. Other other criticisms were that LED visibility 646 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:58,919 Speaker 1: visibility in bright light might be an issue. There's there's 647 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,200 Speaker 1: debate on this because depends on how how it's implemented. Yeah, 648 00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:05,120 Speaker 1: I feel like this is I mean, it's certainly a concern, 649 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:08,760 Speaker 1: you know, because you know, but we've we've got signs 650 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,759 Speaker 1: and traffic signals that use L E D s, but 651 00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:17,120 Speaker 1: that's usually in a perpendicular plane to where sunlight's coming down. 652 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,719 Speaker 1: If it's if the sun's directly overhead and it's a 653 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,759 Speaker 1: really bright day, there is some question about whether or 654 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:27,279 Speaker 1: not the LED lanes would be visible and night would 655 00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:30,000 Speaker 1: be great. Oh, it would be perfect at night bright 656 00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:34,000 Speaker 1: sunlight situation. During the day unless those prisms that that 657 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:37,720 Speaker 1: Scott was talking about are really very well aligned. Yeah, 658 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:39,680 Speaker 1: it can see how to direct the lights so that 659 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:41,720 Speaker 1: you can actually see it even in the brightest of sunlight. 660 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:46,360 Speaker 1: Ryall it's possible I just haven't seen any demonstration of it. 661 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 1: By the way, we should also mention, uh, their workshop 662 00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:53,880 Speaker 1: is in Idaho, about an hour from the border from Canada, 663 00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:58,680 Speaker 1: so their sunlight conditions are slightly different than say here 664 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:02,759 Speaker 1: in Georgia. Sure, but they also get a lot more snow. Uh, 665 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:05,760 Speaker 1: So there's that as well. Then there's the question, speaking 666 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:09,480 Speaker 1: of snow and ice, about is that really the most 667 00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:12,240 Speaker 1: efficient way to melt it, to to use a heating 668 00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,600 Speaker 1: element too, Is that or doesn't mean that you're actually 669 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,040 Speaker 1: using more energy to get rid of that snow and 670 00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:19,799 Speaker 1: ice than you would if you were to say, use 671 00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:23,480 Speaker 1: salt trucks and plows and uh, you know, it all 672 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:27,120 Speaker 1: depends on how much snow there is, how cold it is. Um. 673 00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:30,839 Speaker 1: It also keep in mind that when it's snowing, there's 674 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,880 Speaker 1: a problem when you're using a solar panel based technology 675 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:37,840 Speaker 1: because in the middle of a snowstorm, you're not getting 676 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:41,839 Speaker 1: as much sun would during other times, right, Yeah, any 677 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,680 Speaker 1: sun probably, Yeah, the sunlight factors is kind of a 678 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:47,080 Speaker 1: non factor in that case. Not to mention, like, if 679 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:49,480 Speaker 1: it's snows at night, you know, then you get the 680 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:52,880 Speaker 1: double problem. So you need to power this heating system 681 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:54,920 Speaker 1: in some way, and that means you would be pumping 682 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,120 Speaker 1: power from back in. So then you have the problem 683 00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:01,880 Speaker 1: of now, grant, if the United States had one giant 684 00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,320 Speaker 1: smart grid where power could route from any part of 685 00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:07,720 Speaker 1: the United States to any other part of the United States, 686 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,520 Speaker 1: will that would be a non issue. That is not 687 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,600 Speaker 1: how it works at all. We have regional power grids 688 00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,359 Speaker 1: and most of them are working at capacity. Yeah, and 689 00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:19,600 Speaker 1: there are definitely some remote areas that would have a 690 00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:23,000 Speaker 1: huge problem with this kind of thing under our current infrastructure. Yeah, 691 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:26,120 Speaker 1: so that is a real issue there. Also, there's just 692 00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,319 Speaker 1: the question of if it's made up of tiles, that 693 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:31,080 Speaker 1: means you do have edges. Yeah, these these places where 694 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,680 Speaker 1: tiles meet up against each other. So there's the possibility 695 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:38,719 Speaker 1: of stuff getting between those edges and disrupting the the 696 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:42,240 Speaker 1: road system that way. For instance, just water that's freezing. 697 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:44,880 Speaker 1: And sure, maybe the water on the surface of the 698 00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:48,200 Speaker 1: tiles doesn't freeze because it's heated, but maybe water getting 699 00:39:48,239 --> 00:39:51,359 Speaker 1: between tiles could freeze and then expand and push these 700 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:55,440 Speaker 1: tiles apart. Or you know, the ground moves. Yeah, the 701 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:58,279 Speaker 1: ground can change. I mean ground can change for lots 702 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:00,880 Speaker 1: of reasons, not just earthquakes. Oh yeah, yeah, you know, 703 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,239 Speaker 1: if if trees or other plants are growing nearby, roots 704 00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:07,240 Speaker 1: systems can disrupt the shape of a flat otherwise flat 705 00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:10,719 Speaker 1: ground surface. Anyone who has walked along any sidewalk that's 706 00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,680 Speaker 1: made up of these panels has probably seen cracks in 707 00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:16,480 Speaker 1: the sidewalk, which comes from the movements in the ground 708 00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:19,200 Speaker 1: and thus the movements of the the material itself. The 709 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:23,080 Speaker 1: material can expand and contract as the heat changes, right, Oh, certainly. 710 00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,759 Speaker 1: I mean you know, Furthermore, any time it rains, the 711 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:30,319 Speaker 1: ground is changing dynamically with that rainfall. No matter how 712 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:32,600 Speaker 1: well you seeal a roadway off, it's never going to 713 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:39,319 Speaker 1: be completely perfect. So yeah, you've got the hardness of 714 00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:43,919 Speaker 1: glass versus the softness of asphalt. Asphalt bends with your 715 00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,920 Speaker 1: car as you're driving over it, and this is intrinsic 716 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:49,759 Speaker 1: to the way that people design cars. By the way, 717 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,240 Speaker 1: car Stuff is about to record an episode about solar roadways. 718 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:56,200 Speaker 1: It should be publishing this week, right around the same 719 00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,319 Speaker 1: time that this episode publishes, so well, well, we'll try 720 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:00,279 Speaker 1: to remember to drop a link out to it on 721 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:02,360 Speaker 1: social I I hope that this is one of the 722 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:04,120 Speaker 1: things that they're going to talk about, because I find 723 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:07,640 Speaker 1: I'm a little bit clueless about how that entire thing works, 724 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:09,640 Speaker 1: and I'm interested to hear more about it. Well, on 725 00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:11,279 Speaker 1: top of that, I mean, when you think about it, 726 00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:14,879 Speaker 1: the the solar panels all that weight. Sure, you've got 727 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:17,960 Speaker 1: the glass that's protecting the solar panel technology, but it's 728 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:20,759 Speaker 1: not like the glass just absorbs all the force. That 729 00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:23,760 Speaker 1: force still is going to be going through the solar 730 00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:27,960 Speaker 1: panel and then into the base of the solar panel. Uh, 731 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,919 Speaker 1: depending upon what the ground is beneath it. I don't 732 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,760 Speaker 1: I don't know how it's able to do this without 733 00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:39,439 Speaker 1: damaging the solar panel material. Uh if that could also 734 00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:41,759 Speaker 1: create wiggle room. I mean you're talking about tiles, right, 735 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:45,520 Speaker 1: So if you're driving over the edge of a tile, 736 00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:48,680 Speaker 1: like you imagine that the pressure it's not constantly pressing 737 00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:51,280 Speaker 1: straight down on the tile, it's moving across the tile 738 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:53,799 Speaker 1: like like a rolling pin across the dough. If you've 739 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:56,440 Speaker 1: ever tried to roll out cookie dough, you know that 740 00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 1: it's actually a little bit of work to get that 741 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:02,800 Speaker 1: surface flat. Even because you're working with a curved surface 742 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:06,279 Speaker 1: that's going to affect things slightly differently, So you could 743 00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: end up creating uh like tiles could be wiggling at 744 00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:12,200 Speaker 1: the edges and then they could become uneven. If they 745 00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:14,560 Speaker 1: become uneven, then you have other edges that are sticking 746 00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:18,319 Speaker 1: up higher than the one next to it. So then 747 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:21,160 Speaker 1: it becomes a bumpy surface to drive on, perhaps even 748 00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:24,440 Speaker 1: a dangerous one. Sure, these are all criticisms that people 749 00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:27,759 Speaker 1: have made. Uh that you know, it doesn't mean that 750 00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:32,279 Speaker 1: the implementation won't somehow address them. But it's stuff that 751 00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:39,360 Speaker 1: hasn't hasn't really been covered so far by by the team. UM. 752 00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:42,359 Speaker 1: And a couple more before we transition away, UM, the 753 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:45,040 Speaker 1: question there's a question of whether tires could leave tread 754 00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:49,080 Speaker 1: marks on the glass, adding to the opacity and reducing 755 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:53,080 Speaker 1: the efficiency. UM. And also the loudness of a car 756 00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:58,279 Speaker 1: traveling at speed over glass. UM. One of the one 757 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:02,160 Speaker 1: of the things that makes roads noisy is the material 758 00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:05,440 Speaker 1: that road is made of, UM, and any kind of 759 00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,160 Speaker 1: gaps or cracks and the material tend to produce a 760 00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,120 Speaker 1: lot of noise. And so if you're working with a 761 00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:14,640 Speaker 1: whole bunch of tiles, uh, that's a lot of gaps 762 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:16,880 Speaker 1: and cracks. And also just I mean, the surface of 763 00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:20,120 Speaker 1: the glass is different from asphalt and so it could 764 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:22,640 Speaker 1: it could hypothetically be very noisy. If you ever have 765 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:25,880 Speaker 1: driven over a road that's made of brick, for example, 766 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,400 Speaker 1: then you've probably heard the difference, not munching felt the difference, 767 00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:33,319 Speaker 1: but but definitely heard the difference. And now these these 768 00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:37,759 Speaker 1: panels are larger than that, so you would actually that 769 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:40,600 Speaker 1: would mean that the noise could be even more irritating. 770 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:45,400 Speaker 1: Actually yeah, but uh yes, So all of these materials problems. 771 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,319 Speaker 1: And then there is the price. Of course, it is 772 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:52,120 Speaker 1: completely impossible to say exactly how much the project would 773 00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,319 Speaker 1: actually cost if undertaken so massively, you know, with all 774 00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,600 Speaker 1: of the lowest bitter manufacturing and installation costs that any 775 00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:01,960 Speaker 1: government project has is But what we do know is 776 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,080 Speaker 1: the cost of asphalt UM, which is variable at some 777 00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,960 Speaker 1: three to fifteen bucks per square foot once installed, depending 778 00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:11,200 Speaker 1: on a whole number of factors UM. And we know 779 00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,160 Speaker 1: the rough cost of solar panels, the very rough cost. 780 00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:17,600 Speaker 1: Really it's it's currently some seventy seventy five cents per 781 00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:22,080 Speaker 1: what of capacity for consumer installation UM, with a square 782 00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:26,040 Speaker 1: foot of solar panel comprising some eight to ten watts, 783 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,279 Speaker 1: which means that you're talking about like five bucks to 784 00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,400 Speaker 1: seven and a half bucks per square foot for the 785 00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:37,600 Speaker 1: foot of voltaics alone right at on top of that, 786 00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:41,960 Speaker 1: the cost of micro microprocessors, the other sensors that are 787 00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:46,239 Speaker 1: involved the glass. One YouTuber that you looked at had 788 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:49,000 Speaker 1: done some numbers on the glass. Thunderfoot is the name 789 00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:52,040 Speaker 1: of the YouTuber who has a twenty eight minute long 790 00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:55,680 Speaker 1: video that's a critique of this project. Uh and and 791 00:44:55,719 --> 00:45:01,680 Speaker 1: Thunderfoot is he's little less de pblematic than other people, 792 00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:04,279 Speaker 1: but he on YouTube on YouTube, but he makes some 793 00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:08,759 Speaker 1: very interesting points that you know, these are concerns that 794 00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:10,719 Speaker 1: have to be answered, and one of those was just 795 00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:13,960 Speaker 1: he was just looking at the sheer amount no pun 796 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:17,520 Speaker 1: intended of glass needed for this project, if you're talking 797 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:21,799 Speaker 1: about twenty five square miles of roads, and he through 798 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:24,720 Speaker 1: his calculations, he said, well, just based upon the amount 799 00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:28,879 Speaker 1: that this glass cost and the amount of area, um, 800 00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:32,520 Speaker 1: I come up with twenty trillion dollars just for the class. 801 00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:36,800 Speaker 1: That's more money than what I think anyone is prepared 802 00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:40,759 Speaker 1: to pay for. Yes, I have seen estimates around the 803 00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:44,400 Speaker 1: internet arranging close to fifty to sixty trillion dollars for 804 00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:47,800 Speaker 1: the total cost of the project. To put this in perspective, 805 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,560 Speaker 1: a little bit. The annual budget that the Department of 806 00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:55,120 Speaker 1: Transportation asked for for the National Highway Association uh IN 807 00:45:56,800 --> 00:46:00,840 Speaker 1: was forty one billion dollars, so less than a tenth 808 00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:05,239 Speaker 1: of what this would potentially cost, according to some people, 809 00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:09,759 Speaker 1: could potentially cost. Maybe now, Solar Roadways has responded to 810 00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,719 Speaker 1: a lot of these criticisms, not necessarily effectively in my 811 00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:16,240 Speaker 1: in my opinion, but one of the things, like, for instance, 812 00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:19,319 Speaker 1: for the cost, their response to the cost I don't 813 00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:24,080 Speaker 1: think was a real response. Again in my opinion, they said, essentially, 814 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:26,440 Speaker 1: we don't know how much a panel is going to 815 00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,400 Speaker 1: cost yet because we haven't cost out the prototype, because 816 00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:31,400 Speaker 1: this is all stuff that we're buying off the shelf 817 00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,400 Speaker 1: to make a working concept, right and don't have a 818 00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:37,360 Speaker 1: production model yet. Right this the dollars that we are 819 00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:39,720 Speaker 1: getting from our Indigo Go campaign are going to people 820 00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:42,799 Speaker 1: who are very intelligent and are going to help us 821 00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:47,480 Speaker 1: make this cost efficiency. So they don't so their response 822 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,560 Speaker 1: to it doesn't cost fifty or sixty trillion dollars because 823 00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:53,799 Speaker 1: we don't know how much it costs yet. That's I mean, 824 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:56,160 Speaker 1: it's a fair response in the sense that they don't 825 00:46:56,239 --> 00:46:58,759 Speaker 1: have a figure, but it also and and it is 826 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:01,759 Speaker 1: it is fair when they say that, Um, any journalist 827 00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:04,200 Speaker 1: who reports on the exact number that's going to cost 828 00:47:04,239 --> 00:47:06,600 Speaker 1: and doesn't know what they're talking about, because technically none 829 00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:09,520 Speaker 1: of us know what we're talking about. Now, that doesn't 830 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:12,640 Speaker 1: mean that it won't cost fifty or sixty trillion dollars. 831 00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,399 Speaker 1: It might It might cost more than that, depending upon 832 00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:20,400 Speaker 1: what the final cost of any individual solar panel is. Uh, 833 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:22,879 Speaker 1: it may cost more than that to outfit the entire 834 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:25,480 Speaker 1: United States. The point they were making is that we 835 00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:28,600 Speaker 1: don't know yet, so don't report those numbers. Because I 836 00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:30,960 Speaker 1: don't know why they're so concerned. Their indigog project has 837 00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:34,040 Speaker 1: already funded, so they can at least, uh, continue on 838 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:36,560 Speaker 1: and see how feasible this is. But it's one of 839 00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:40,239 Speaker 1: the responses. And it was actually a flexible, flexible funding one, 840 00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,919 Speaker 1: which means that even if they hadn't reached their full 841 00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:45,920 Speaker 1: funding amount, the money that people had given to the 842 00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:48,439 Speaker 1: project would have still most of it would have gone 843 00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:51,160 Speaker 1: to them. Well, indigog takes a bigger chunk on that case. 844 00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:54,759 Speaker 1: But yes, uh, Then some of the other refutations they 845 00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:59,000 Speaker 1: had didn't seem to address what the concern was for example, 846 00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:04,040 Speaker 1: that criticism about heating roadways being inefficient and expensive compared to, say, 847 00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:10,240 Speaker 1: using a snowplow. Their response first was that um, driving 848 00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:13,280 Speaker 1: in the winter, in the winter during ice or snowstorms 849 00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,960 Speaker 1: is dangerous, which no one, no one was arguing, and 850 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:21,280 Speaker 1: no one had questioned every that's that's evident that driving 851 00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:25,239 Speaker 1: in those conditions is dangerous, and therefore reducing those conditions 852 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,120 Speaker 1: is a good thing. No one disagrees with that. Then 853 00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:31,360 Speaker 1: they also said that it's expensive to run snowplows and 854 00:48:31,760 --> 00:48:34,040 Speaker 1: salt trucks, that kind of thing. No one said it 855 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:38,279 Speaker 1: wasn't expensive, not a question. No, they were saying, is 856 00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,040 Speaker 1: it you know, it proved to us that your approach 857 00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:45,360 Speaker 1: of using heat is more efficient and more cost effective 858 00:48:45,880 --> 00:48:49,040 Speaker 1: than this other one. Because again, if you are in 859 00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:51,680 Speaker 1: an area that needs this service, you are also in 860 00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:55,840 Speaker 1: an area where you're not generating that electricity dynamically, and 861 00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:59,080 Speaker 1: unless you have some magical way of getting the electricity 862 00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:01,800 Speaker 1: from sunny place is to the places that are under 863 00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:06,000 Speaker 1: lots of snow. That means you're pouring power into the system, 864 00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:09,960 Speaker 1: and that trying to melt snow or ice it caught, 865 00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:12,440 Speaker 1: it requires a lot of energy, and so if you're 866 00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:14,920 Speaker 1: having to use a lot of energy, then that means 867 00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:16,960 Speaker 1: that it might be costing you more money in the 868 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,480 Speaker 1: long run to use that method than to use a snowplow. 869 00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:22,399 Speaker 1: And you can't use a snowplow on this type of road. 870 00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:24,839 Speaker 1: So once it's there, you're stuck with you. You're stuck 871 00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:28,200 Speaker 1: with it until you can melt it. Uh So, one 872 00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,680 Speaker 1: thing that I haven't seen addressed that I did want 873 00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:34,720 Speaker 1: to mention is that, Okay, solar energy is wonderful in theory. 874 00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:36,560 Speaker 1: I've talked about this on the show before. I think 875 00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:41,680 Speaker 1: um and costs and manufacturing practices are improving all the time, 876 00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:45,400 Speaker 1: but as it stands, it is not completely green. This 877 00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:49,440 Speaker 1: is not necessarily a super earth friendly technology. It is 878 00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:53,680 Speaker 1: frequently better in the long run than some other things, 879 00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:55,920 Speaker 1: but okay, the thing is is that solar panels are 880 00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:59,840 Speaker 1: made with rare earth elements so called not because the 881 00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:03,040 Speaker 1: are all that rare, they're actually fairly common, but rather 882 00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:07,240 Speaker 1: because they're found in very small concentrations, and surrounding or 883 00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:10,880 Speaker 1: refining them is really difficult and can involve some truly 884 00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:14,800 Speaker 1: scary chemical processes. Right now, most of this is done 885 00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:19,120 Speaker 1: in China because their cheapest from China, mostly because the 886 00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:22,879 Speaker 1: minds are state run, their employees are terrifically underpaid, and 887 00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:26,960 Speaker 1: their practices are blatantly irresponsible. We're talking about these sites 888 00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:30,160 Speaker 1: which are situated smack in the middle of residential areas, 889 00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:34,440 Speaker 1: dumping you know, like toxic sulfuric acid vapor into the 890 00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:38,719 Speaker 1: local air and radioactive thorium into the local water systems. 891 00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:43,120 Speaker 1: It is a really huge concern. So while the generating 892 00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:46,480 Speaker 1: of electricity itself is green, the generating of the solar 893 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:49,319 Speaker 1: panels is not. It's not and and of course you 894 00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:53,480 Speaker 1: know the these these minds in China, are these irresponsible 895 00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:56,480 Speaker 1: minds in China are not the only ones producing the 896 00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:59,640 Speaker 1: materials for our solar panels. I don't want to represent 897 00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:02,840 Speaker 1: that because that would be untrue. And I do believe 898 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:06,160 Speaker 1: that there are many places that are working towards much 899 00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:10,799 Speaker 1: better systems, but still a current concern. And anyone who's 900 00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:13,840 Speaker 1: listened to UH there's an old Tech Stuff episode on 901 00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:17,240 Speaker 1: Rare Earth minerals as well, where we really go into 902 00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:20,480 Speaker 1: the detail of what they are and why there's this 903 00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:23,960 Speaker 1: this problem with them, and also, you know, everything from 904 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:27,080 Speaker 1: the issues you were just talking about Lauren too to 905 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:31,799 Speaker 1: artificial scarcity, where you have a country like China restricting 906 00:51:32,239 --> 00:51:35,200 Speaker 1: how much they will deport, how much they will export, 907 00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:39,640 Speaker 1: not deport how much they'll export to other countries, almost 908 00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:43,280 Speaker 1: as a way of like some people would call it extortion. 909 00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:47,719 Speaker 1: It's controlling the market. Certainly, they are forcing foreign companies 910 00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:51,920 Speaker 1: to build plants in their borders in order to do 911 00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:55,600 Speaker 1: their thing right, and once money gets into China, it 912 00:51:55,840 --> 00:52:02,080 Speaker 1: rarely um so, so there's that. Uh. Also, I did 913 00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:05,880 Speaker 1: want to point out that a lot of the teams 914 00:52:05,960 --> 00:52:09,480 Speaker 1: that the solar Roadways teams ideas really aren't related to 915 00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:12,160 Speaker 1: the solar part of the roadway at all, but are rather, 916 00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:15,120 Speaker 1: you know, to the l ed s and the potential 917 00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:19,480 Speaker 1: smart capacity of the system, which is another twillions of 918 00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:23,959 Speaker 1: dollars more in research and development and implementation. Sure, yeah, 919 00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:30,759 Speaker 1: this is again we're talking about an enormous endeavor. I 920 00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:35,040 Speaker 1: guess you could argue that these early days are still 921 00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:37,839 Speaker 1: to prove the concept is viable, and if in fact 922 00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,640 Speaker 1: it is viable, maybe we see the rollout as an 923 00:52:40,680 --> 00:52:43,799 Speaker 1: extremely gradual role. It would have to be. I mean, 924 00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:47,319 Speaker 1: there's there's no magical manufacturing process that's going to turn 925 00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:50,080 Speaker 1: these things out in the volume necessary to cover all 926 00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:53,400 Speaker 1: the roads anyway. Oh, certainly not. But you know, maybe 927 00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:58,680 Speaker 1: for private practices it could be a you know, if 928 00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:02,080 Speaker 1: a company wanted to pave their parking lot. Sure, yeah, 929 00:53:02,120 --> 00:53:04,600 Speaker 1: I could see this as being something that's used on 930 00:53:04,600 --> 00:53:08,400 Speaker 1: a more modest scale. A lot of the critics also say, 931 00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:12,239 Speaker 1: why pour money into this particular project when we could 932 00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:16,200 Speaker 1: use a similar approach to places that are not constantly 933 00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:21,240 Speaker 1: covered by cars, like putting solar panels along the sides 934 00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:24,440 Speaker 1: of roads or on top of buildings. So, in that sense, 935 00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:29,080 Speaker 1: using this technology to uh in ways where you don't 936 00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:31,680 Speaker 1: have the considerations of how do you do this without 937 00:53:31,719 --> 00:53:35,600 Speaker 1: disrupting all traffic everywhere or putting things in danger or 938 00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:39,759 Speaker 1: having a an infrastructure that has to be replaced frequently 939 00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:43,320 Speaker 1: because of just the wear and tear. I'm curious about 940 00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:47,240 Speaker 1: why a system of kinetic kinetic road plates hasn't received 941 00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:50,200 Speaker 1: this kind of attention. And yeah, I mean kinetic road 942 00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:52,359 Speaker 1: plates would have their own issue because you're talking about 943 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:56,239 Speaker 1: transferring kinetic motion from the car to the roadway, and 944 00:53:56,320 --> 00:53:58,760 Speaker 1: unless you do it in a very very smart way, 945 00:53:58,800 --> 00:54:01,120 Speaker 1: you're just adding more work for the car to do. 946 00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:05,359 Speaker 1: So it's just an you're not. You're not generating more 947 00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,040 Speaker 1: energy that way, You're actually spending the same amount of 948 00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:12,080 Speaker 1: energy you would be capturing just in your car. You'd 949 00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:14,040 Speaker 1: be collecting it an aggregate, but your car would have 950 00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:16,399 Speaker 1: to work harder, so on each Yeah, it's a This 951 00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:20,160 Speaker 1: is why energy problems are hard, because they're big. You know, 952 00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:22,600 Speaker 1: you can look at one individual piece of an energy 953 00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:25,120 Speaker 1: problem and you say, oh, if we just fix this, 954 00:54:25,560 --> 00:54:28,279 Speaker 1: everything's fine. But then you have to step outside of 955 00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:30,759 Speaker 1: that and look at a bigger picture, and that's when 956 00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:35,760 Speaker 1: it gets really complicated. So personally, I think the idea 957 00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:38,680 Speaker 1: as presented is worth exploring at least to see how 958 00:54:38,719 --> 00:54:43,280 Speaker 1: feasible it is and in what context. So I would 959 00:54:43,280 --> 00:54:50,120 Speaker 1: be amazed if this actually becomes a viable means of 960 00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:53,919 Speaker 1: replacing roads. I really would. I think it's a neat idea. 961 00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:57,680 Speaker 1: I just don't see it working. I would eat my 962 00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:01,560 Speaker 1: proverbial hat. Yeah it is proverbial. She is not wearing 963 00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:06,480 Speaker 1: a hat because the headphones don't fit over hats. Um. Yeah, 964 00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:11,160 Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm extremely dubious, you guys. Yeah, I think 965 00:55:11,200 --> 00:55:15,480 Speaker 1: it could potentially be something interesting for you know, parking 966 00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:20,560 Speaker 1: lots or paved public spaces sidewalks that could maybe be. 967 00:55:21,040 --> 00:55:22,760 Speaker 1: But I mean, I think in the sidewalks I walked 968 00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:26,520 Speaker 1: down and how the things like a tree growing ends 969 00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:29,880 Speaker 1: up completely destroying the sidewalk in the matter of a 970 00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:32,480 Speaker 1: couple of years. And that's that's a you know, regular 971 00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:37,120 Speaker 1: old clay ceramic sile that doesn't have any you know, 972 00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:42,960 Speaker 1: in it poisonous electronics. So I mean, I think it's 973 00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:46,359 Speaker 1: worth looking into because if nothing else, it means that 974 00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:50,200 Speaker 1: we might get ideas for alternate approaches that could buil 975 00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:52,560 Speaker 1: down the road. I just don't think this one's gonna 976 00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:55,720 Speaker 1: pay Yeah, And and I certainly don't want to quash 977 00:55:55,760 --> 00:56:00,920 Speaker 1: you know, scientific inquiry and and curiosity nor to nor 978 00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:04,719 Speaker 1: do I want to green areas and roadways. That's terrific. Yeah, 979 00:56:04,719 --> 00:56:07,160 Speaker 1: And if any of you have contributed to this project, 980 00:56:07,239 --> 00:56:10,000 Speaker 1: we're not even saying that that was a mistake, not 981 00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:13,439 Speaker 1: at all. What we're saying is that, uh, don't buy 982 00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:18,239 Speaker 1: into the hype wholeheartedly. Go in with some skepticism, some 983 00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:22,120 Speaker 1: critical thinking, and realize that even if this doesn't end 984 00:56:22,200 --> 00:56:25,440 Speaker 1: up paying off in the implementation they're talking about, we 985 00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:28,280 Speaker 1: could end up coming up with some really cool ideas 986 00:56:28,719 --> 00:56:31,280 Speaker 1: that are similar to it, and that we could benefit 987 00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:35,120 Speaker 1: from other ways and and who knows. The worst case 988 00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:39,840 Speaker 1: scenario with our personal opinions is that we're wrong and 989 00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:42,399 Speaker 1: it works, and if it works, it's awesome. Actually, that's 990 00:56:42,440 --> 00:56:44,520 Speaker 1: kind of a best case scenario really from the project, 991 00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:46,640 Speaker 1: Like I would take that I would love to be 992 00:56:46,719 --> 00:56:50,680 Speaker 1: proven wrong, that that's true. I would love that my 993 00:56:50,840 --> 00:56:55,440 Speaker 1: skepticism turns out to be unwarranted and that the problems 994 00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:58,760 Speaker 1: I foresee, Like I'm still trying to think of using 995 00:56:58,760 --> 00:57:03,520 Speaker 1: a hexagonal system of tiles in areas that have lots 996 00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:06,200 Speaker 1: of hills and valleys and turns in them that would 997 00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:11,319 Speaker 1: require some pretty you know, how do you get it? 998 00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:16,000 Speaker 1: They also have trapezoidal half touch that. Yeah, it just 999 00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:18,680 Speaker 1: but it doesn't make me nonetheless. Yeah, but but I 1000 00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:21,040 Speaker 1: would love to be proven wrong and to see that 1001 00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:24,280 Speaker 1: this works perfectly, because you know, I want to drive 1002 00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:27,200 Speaker 1: around in tron world, or at least have my driverless 1003 00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:30,360 Speaker 1: car take me around in Tron world. Oh yeah, me too. 1004 00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:33,760 Speaker 1: And if this ultimately did work out and we were 1005 00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:37,200 Speaker 1: also able to have electric vehicles everywhere and really cut 1006 00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:41,320 Speaker 1: back on that pollution, that'd be fantastic. Um. Yeah, some 1007 00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:44,200 Speaker 1: of their Further ideas are to you know, provide induction 1008 00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:48,240 Speaker 1: surfaces to let these this the solar powered roadway also 1009 00:57:48,320 --> 00:57:52,480 Speaker 1: directly charge your electric vehicle as you drive it around. Yeah, 1010 00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:55,240 Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. That'd be pretty amazing. Yeah, essentially you 1011 00:57:55,280 --> 00:57:57,680 Speaker 1: have a car that you never have to refuel. Um, 1012 00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:00,600 Speaker 1: this is a future that can charge in parking lot 1013 00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:02,920 Speaker 1: while you're you know, while you're at Taco Bell or whatever. 1014 00:58:05,120 --> 00:58:07,000 Speaker 1: Sorry I said the taco Bell word. My stomach has 1015 00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:10,360 Speaker 1: been growling this whole podcast. Um. Yeah, I could eat 1016 00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:14,120 Speaker 1: like a king. I got like three bucks in my pocket. Uh. Yeah, 1017 00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:16,840 Speaker 1: this is this is something that we would love to 1018 00:58:16,880 --> 00:58:19,520 Speaker 1: see happen. We just really think that it's a long shot. 1019 00:58:19,960 --> 00:58:22,000 Speaker 1: That doesn't mean it's not a long shot worth taking. 1020 00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:27,600 Speaker 1: Just be aware that the chances of success are are there. 1021 00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:30,120 Speaker 1: There are a lot of challenges in the way. Yes, 1022 00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:32,760 Speaker 1: that is a very diplomatic way of putting it. Um, 1023 00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:36,000 Speaker 1: but hey, if you guys have any opinions about this, 1024 00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:38,840 Speaker 1: if you think that we are dead wrong or dead right, 1025 00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:41,520 Speaker 1: or or if you're if you're thinking like you guys 1026 00:58:41,720 --> 00:58:44,840 Speaker 1: didn't even address these eighteen other concerns that I have 1027 00:58:45,000 --> 00:58:48,439 Speaker 1: that I think are the barrier, or maybe you think, hey, 1028 00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:50,600 Speaker 1: you said that this was a concern, but here's how 1029 00:58:50,600 --> 00:58:52,720 Speaker 1: they're going to need it. You want to know all 1030 00:58:52,720 --> 00:58:55,040 Speaker 1: of that because this this is again one of those 1031 00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:58,240 Speaker 1: visions of the future that we would love to see happen. 1032 00:58:58,680 --> 00:59:00,760 Speaker 1: We just don't know if it's possible. Let us know 1033 00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:03,920 Speaker 1: what you think. Come join the conversation on Facebook. That's 1034 00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:06,640 Speaker 1: a great place to to start. Uh. You can let 1035 00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:08,600 Speaker 1: us know what you think on Twitter. You can let 1036 00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:10,760 Speaker 1: us know what you think on Tumbler, or handle it. 1037 00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,160 Speaker 1: All three of those is text stuff hs W. We 1038 00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:19,400 Speaker 1: are working hard. I am told on getting a new 1039 00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:21,960 Speaker 1: email address. If you've tried to email the old one, 1040 00:59:21,960 --> 00:59:24,320 Speaker 1: you've probably got a message saying you should email tech 1041 00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:27,720 Speaker 1: stuff at how stuffworks dot com. And that's hypothetically true. 1042 00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:31,080 Speaker 1: At the current moment on June twelve, it is not 1043 00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:33,200 Speaker 1: set up yet, but hopefully by the time you listen 1044 00:59:33,240 --> 00:59:36,520 Speaker 1: to this it will be operational. We sure hope. So 1045 00:59:37,120 --> 00:59:39,360 Speaker 1: if you get a message saying that it did not 1046 00:59:39,520 --> 00:59:43,560 Speaker 1: go through, don't fear we haven't gone anywhere. Just send 1047 00:59:43,600 --> 00:59:46,440 Speaker 1: us a message on Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler in the meantime 1048 00:59:46,800 --> 00:59:49,640 Speaker 1: and then uh, we will let everyone know once we're 1049 00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:52,840 Speaker 1: absolutely certain that email addresses up and running. We thank 1050 00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:56,040 Speaker 1: you for your patients, and we will talk to you again, 1051 00:59:56,560 --> 01:00:02,760 Speaker 1: really sick. For more on this and thousands of other topics, 1052 01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:14,240 Speaker 1: visit how staff works dot com