WEBVTT - Solar Freaking Roadways 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:06.400 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:14.280 stuff works dot com. Hey there, everyone, welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.200 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren bold Day. We're going 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:22.919 to talk about solar freaking roadways. Solar freaking roadways. Yeah, 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.960 you may have seen the video or perhaps even contributed 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.880 to the Indie Go go uh campaign campaign. That's the 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:32.800 word I was looking for. We're going to start off 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:34.920 strong here, people, when I can't think of the word 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.440 for campaign now. The reason why we're doing this is 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.760 we had two different listeners ask us on Facebook, Kevin 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.520 and Sherry, Right. They both wanted to hear about this proposal, 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.160 find out what's the deal behind it, what's the technology 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.640 behind it? Is it in fact a realistic approach? So 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:52.680 because there's been a lot of hype about it, So 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.400 thank you guys much for writing in. There's been controversy. 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:57.200 I think it's a safe word to use. There's been, 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.400 at least, if nothing else, a spirited debate eight both 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.959 sides of the debate Internet Yeah, no, both sides have 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.480 said debate. Both the the proponents and the critics of 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:15.080 said solar roadways have been um at times passionate on 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.480 the internet. Yeah, that's kind of my gentle tiptoeing around 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:23.280 the edgeway of saying that there's been some fairly reactionary 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:25.800 responses on both sides. We're going to cut through all 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.080 that and tell you what's going on, hopefully, and I 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.959 you know, both of us are human people who also 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.880 have opinions about things. But we're going to try very 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.920 hard to be as objective as possible, and then at 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:41.000 the end we will spew our opinions all over the podcast. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.640 So fair warning, yes, but at any rate, let's start 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.120 off with just some fun facts. Okay, fun facts about highways. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.280 Fun facts about highways in the United States, to be specific. So, 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.080 the US highway system has four million miles of roads, 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.360 which is about six million, four hundred thousand kilometers. Not 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.080 many people know this, but Lauren capable of doing miles 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.120 to kilometer conversions in her head on the fly. It's amazing. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.280 So that's according to the National Atlas of the United States. Now, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.000 the interstate highway system accounts for only one percent of 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:20.280 all highway mileage but carries twenty of total vehicle miles 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.880 of travel, which to me says take the surface streets. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:28.040 That's what I usually do. Yeah, at any rate. The highways, 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.240 although they are a great way of moving lots of 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:34.120 cars through very quickly. Uh that that's not you know, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.080 more of the roads in our our country are surface streets. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.800 They're not like these big interstates certainly, but but um, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:46.400 but highways are are pretty they cover a wide surface area. Nonetheless, 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.440 the average the average width of a highway lane is 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.880 eleven feet, which is three point three five Wow. It 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.720 works on feet de meters too, It's pretty amazing. Okay. 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.600 Uh So that means that if you were to add 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.800 up all the this area that these roads are covering 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.480 in the United States, you would end up somewhere around 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.160 seventeen thousand, nine hundred twenty nine square miles in the 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.760 United States, which is forty thousand, four hundred and thirty 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.480 six square kilometers. Crap. You can do area too if 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.519 you add another paved services, so we're talking about things 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:24.160 like parking lots, sidewalks, bike lanes, this kind of thing. 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:29.240 It ends up being around twenty five thousand square miles 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:34.480 of area or seven hundred square kilometers, right. So that's 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.360 a lot of space, and it's not an insignificant amount. 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:40.920 It's doing an important job, you know, because some people 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:44.480 will say that's space, that's not doing anything. No, it 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.520 is in fact doing something wasted space. It's certainly providing 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.240 a service. Yes, it provides us a route to get 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.800 from one point to another point, specifically in the vehicles 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.240 that we all depend upon, without very much ruining our 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.520 our vehicles or our shoe is or right. It's it's 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.720 made up of stuff. That is, it's got traction to it. 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.560 It's meant to be uh as efficient a system as 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.640 we can really do with with a lot of passive systems. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.280 Like it's a very passive system, yes, and but it's 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:20.480 relatively inexpensive and pretty functional. But what would happen if 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.920 we can make this stuff do double duty? What if 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.440 instead of just being a way, you know, the the 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:30.000 platform upon which our vehicles travel, it could also help 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:34.120 generate energy and offset our need for generating power in 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:38.039 other ways. What if we could perhaps turn the entire 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:43.960 road system of the United States into a giant solar farm. 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.080 In other words, we replaced the roads with solar panels, 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.400 were still driving on them, but now not only are 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:54.120 we all that flat space is being put to further use, 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:59.200 or even hilly space well, relatively flat space. Yeah, so 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.920 that's where the idea of solar roadways kicked in. UH. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.960 And then to get specific, you have a husband and 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:09.120 wife team, Scott and Julie Brussa, who are the the 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:14.039 people behind solar roadways, right, Scott is by trade an 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.680 electrical engineer and Julie as a counselor. And apparently it 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:22.320 was Julie's idea to put solar panels on roads. That 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.000 was her. She just said, you know, she and her 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.799 husband were having a discussion about UH, climate change, about 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:34.800 human human contributions to climate change, about pollution, about the 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.240 fact that a lot of that pollution comes from our 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.320 dependence upon fossil fuels, and she said, well, you know, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.039 I realized that solar panel farms like these are not 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.360 the most efficient ways of getting energy. We've talked about 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.200 that on this show before. That even if you're talking 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:53.080 like state of the art, top of the line laboratory conditions, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:58.440 at most you're hitting under ideal conditions. Reality, it's closer 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:03.280 to under good conditions and probably less than that for 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.919 your average performance. So you're losing a lot of the 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.880 energy that's hitting those panels, and you're not necessarily generating 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.160 a lot of electricity from the energy you're bringing in. 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:14.640 But what if we had a lot of them? Yeah, 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.440 what if we were able to instead of clearing out 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:19.159 land in order to make a solar farm, what if 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.560 we were able to utilize that space, the spaces that 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.800 we already have, you know, using robust panels that can 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:32.640 withstand the traffic. Right, and so Scott, in his various videos, 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.719 there are several videos that Scott Brusaw is in where 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.360 he talks about this idea, said that he initially kind 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.000 of laughed at the idea, and then he thought, well, 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.280 how would I, as an engineer, how would I go 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:50.000 about trying to make a practical way of implementing her solution? 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:52.680 And that was the way solar roadways were born. This 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.360 was not no this you may have only just heard 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.240 about this, but they've been working on this since the 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.320 mid two thousand's, so two six typelieve, I think you're right. Yeah, 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.960 So they started brainstorming these different ways. They came up 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.960 with this, uh, this solar panel roadway approach, but it 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:09.840 does mean that they had to think of other stuff 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.760 bed and and they also went beyond just solar panels, right, oh, right, 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.280 you know, they're they're not just there to collect energy. 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.960 They would also have you know, microprocessors in them and 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:25.560 LEDs which would allow you to, uh, you know, like 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.880 like change the lanes and on a highway based on 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.600 traffic patterns, or move parking spots around in a parking lot. 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.400 Right like so for example, uh, the street that is 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.640 near my neighborhood is a three lane road and it 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.600 has two reversible or has a reversible lane in the center. 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.320 Reversible lanes mean that some parts of the day traffic 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.440 is allowed to go in one direction, and in another 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.720 part of the day traffic is allowed to go in 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.320 the opposite direction. And they just end up designating that 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.360 with there's a sign that hangs above the road that 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.000 either of you an arrow saying yes you can drive 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.320 in this lane X say red X that says please 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:08.440 don't do that. By the way, I cannot tell you 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.120 how many times have encountered people who absolutely have no 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.000 idea how reversible lanes work. They treat it like it's 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.200 a turning lane. They're a little bit terrifying. It is 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.920 absolutely terrifying. You know, driving in the center lane on 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.960 that road is something of a crap shoot at any rate. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:27.240 Using this approach, you could actually have the information on 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.400 the road itself. Those led lights could spell out which 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.640 lanes were permissible to use during what parts of the day, 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:37.840 so you could change it on the fly. Responds to 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.520 dynamic condition, so if traffic is suddenly very heavy coming 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:44.040 from one direction versus the other, you could change the 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.200 lanes in a safe way. Or like you said, you 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.760 could do things like in a parking lot, designate different 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.080 types of spaces. Perhaps if you were expecting to have 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.520 a big motorcycle convention, like some parts of the country do, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:08:59.960 then you could end up having a bunch of motor 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.320 cycle parking spots as opposed to full sized car spots. 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:05.360 That kind of stuff. And it's interesting because it means 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.920 you could change things based upon whatever conditions were at 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.280 the time. That's not the only thing these could do though. 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:15.400 Oh yeah. They also proposed to incorporate heating elements so 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:17.960 that you could melt any kind of any kind of 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.880 ice or snow on the roadway, thus being able to 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:26.319 prevent terrible, terrible driving conditions. Right sure, And you wouldn't 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.400 have to use a plow or actually you can't use 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.520 a plow on one of these roads, because it did, 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:36.719 you'd end up scraping the glass, the glass covering yeah. Um. 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:42.360 But but also um providing providing an infrastructure for carrying 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:47.920 that collected energy collected energy and big technical quotation marks 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.200 um to to get it to places that need it. So, 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.400 in other words, there'd be a kind of a corridor 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.440 that would run alongside the road which would help deal 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.560 with the runoff from that aforementioned snow and ice. Yes, yes, 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:01.520 you would have of two parts of that corridor. One 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.880 part would be a storm drain which would even include 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.040 perhaps a filtration system and pumps to move water to 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.320 where it might actually be used. So you could in 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.320 theory treat the water on site on the road. Essentially 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.360 as as it's running off, you can treat it so 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.280 it ends up being useful, and then pump it someplace 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.760 like an aquifer or for agricultural purposes, or to another 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:28.439 water treatment facility if the water is particularly and then 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:30.839 that's the technical term. And then you could have the 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.840 cable corridor, which would allow you to put power cables 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.200 so that it could uh transmit the collected energy to 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.800 some other system. All of this, by the way, it 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.840 sounds like we're being vague. It's because right now the 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:48.680 team is really focusing on the solar panel part and 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.920 and all of this is is kind of interesting. Other 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.840 ideas that they're drawing into it. Um yea also reaching 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.440 further out into the future, incorporating a lot more of 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.000 of smart elements to the road ways of you know, 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.959 doing things like if, um, if a kid is crossing 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.800 the street, having the street interact with your car to 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.160 tell you there's a kid up there, don't hit that kid, right, 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.440 and maybe even the part of the street the kid 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:14.959 is on lights up so you can see that the 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.120 physically right. So yeah, it would have to have some 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.559 sort of pressure sensors in there that that would somehow 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.959 be able to differentiate when a kid is on there 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.920 versus say someone on a bike or a car or 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.400 you know. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right, right, 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.280 But you know, all kinds of interesting stuff like that 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.360 is stuff that they talk about in their promotional material. Yeah, 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:42.280 and they obviously, in order to get support because it 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.320 was an indigo go campaign, which means it's crowdfunded, you know, 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.840 they were asking people to to contribute money to this 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.400 project so that they could test the feasibility of it. 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.160 Keep in mind, this is to test the feasibility, not 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.880 saying that this is going to to launch them into 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.440 implementing this on a i'd scale. We'll get into more 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.679 about that in a second. But um, it also uh 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.520 was a way of saying, hey, look, we can improve 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.560 our infrastructure in multiple ways. If there is a damage 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.439 a damaged panel, someone could pop out there, knock a 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.160 panel out, put a new panel in, and they're done. 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.240 It's none of this put a big sheet of metal 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.120 over a pothole business that happens in Atlanta all the time. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.679 Or that we'd be able to take all the power 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.400 cables and telephone cables and take them off of suspended 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.080 lines and bury them within this roadway, yeah, in that 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.760 cable corridor, which means that when you have really bad weather, 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.839 you don't have to worry about those power lines being 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.280 snapped by ice or something and then becoming a hazard 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.840 to anyone who happens to be walking by. Now, in 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:53.079 order to go from this sort of brainstorming proposal idea 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.920 to reality, they they noticed that there were some pretty 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.679 significant challenges. Sure, um, you know, first of all, you 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.320 photovoltaics are very delicate. I'm so you're going to need 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.359 a really strong surface in order to protect them from 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.640 you know, trucks, Yes, exactly. Yeah, you have to have 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.160 something that was going to keep them from breaking under 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:22.320 the the consistent pressure they would be under from vehicles 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.000 running over them. But the early if you're talking about 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.680 like a highway where you've got hundreds of thousands of 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:32.120 vehicles in any given month, and some of those being 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.760 incredibly heavy, like trucks pulling huge amounts of cargo, you've 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.920 got to have something that's gonna withstand that kind of 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.640 that kind of wear and tear, right in order to 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.280 accomplish this, and also you know, have it be transparent 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.920 so that it can also collect sunlight. As it turns 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.400 out that if you made it really super strong but 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.680 it was opaque, the solar panel part has has problems. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.880 Right um, tempered glass they figured is the best way 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.679 to do this. The problem one of the problems with 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.280 tempered glass is that you can't really paint on it. Yeah, 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.240 so that's why they came up with the idea of 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.040 using the L e eds to demonstrate light. That meant 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:11.880 that they were going to have to pick some pretty 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:13.560 bright L e d s. We'll talk about that when 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:17.400 we get to the criticisms part. Sure, Um, but yeah, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.800 then also they wanted to make sure that the light 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.520 was going to pass cleanly through that glass. The glass 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:26.520 needs to be clear. It can't be you know, if 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.440 if you have a colored glass, that that's telling you 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:33.040 immediately that there are certain that you're not going to 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.640 get there. Yeah, they're not going to go through. So 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.480 you want that to be clear glass. And it needs 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:43.320 to be arranged in a way that the physical arrangement 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.840 of any kind of coding on top of photovoltakes is 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.360 going to have very much to do with the way 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:52.200 that light refracts and and reflects down through it. Yeah, 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.120 So it's that ends up affecting the the efficiency of 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.520 that particular solar panel. They said that these solar panels 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.920 would be a on fift efficient although as far as 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.640 I know, no independent testing has been done of the 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:07.800 solar panels, not that I'm aware of, although they do 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:12.640 currently only have a very small test patch. Uh yeah, 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.520 speaking of I mean, you know, the road systems, like 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.960 Jonathan talked about at the top of the show, are big. 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.600 You've got a lot of them. Yeah, and so one 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:26.240 of the big challenges that they really haven't addressed yet. Uh. 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.520 You know, they're looking at it from the positive perspective, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.600 which I totally understand. They're like, look at this, this 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.080 is going to create millions of jobs. But millions of 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.960 jobs means you have to pay those people. Uh, and 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.360 it also means that you're going to run into a 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:43.960 lot of equipment costs and manufacturing costs, materials. What are 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:47.480 you going to do while you are retrofitting a highway? 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:49.840 You know, what what exactly is going to take place 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.440 with this? Because we don't even know what their proposal 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.480 is for the replacement part. We don't know doesn't mean 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.880 that they're going to place solar panels on top of 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.240 pre existing infrastructure, are going to have to dig up 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.760 all of the roads, right What where are people going 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.480 to drive while that's going on? You know, there are 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.320 a lot of questions here that are going to be 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:12.200 uh A big challenges. And then of course, you know 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.080 there's cost, like we kind of just said, attached to 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.840 all of this, not only logistical costs, but very real 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.800 money dollar costs, or as very real as money and 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.760 dollars ever are right, that's an entirely different conversation that 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.320 we've also had but uh yeah, I mean these are 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.400 things that they had to take into account, all right. 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:38.440 So the first prototype they built was a rectangular prototype. 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:40.440 It was our square really because it was it was 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.840 twelve feet by twelve feet that's about three point seven meters. 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.040 Like cow, you're on the ball today, all right, So yeah, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.520 it was this. It was really to test the idea 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.800 to to try the LEDs to create the microprocessors that 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.080 communicate with each other. They do so wirelessly by the way, 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:02.240 they do this kind of messaging stem between them. Um, 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.560 the videos are pretty cool, like he showed, Uh, I 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.040 guess it's I assume it's his daughter who stands on 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.320 a panel that's separate from the the huge solar panel, 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.360 the twelve foot one, and when she steps on it, 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:21.199 it creates that flashing pattern on the panel she steps on, 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:25.240 and then it spells out slowed down on the test panel, yeah, 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.000 the giant one. Then he also did things like created 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.000 a maze, a little like Pacman style maze that kids 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:33.280 could run through on this solar panel, which is really 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.639 showing that the LEDs could in fact show yeah, they 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:40.080 could be all sorts of different patterns. Um. So that 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.719 was the first prototype. But that of course is not 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:47.120 what the the current panel looks like. The current panels 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.480 are hexagonal in shape. I'll talk about that in a second. Now, 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:52.800 they decided to use glass, like we said, to be 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.639 the protective layer because it let's light pass through and 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.440 the compression strength is good. Now they keep on saying 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.399 it's somewhere between steel and stainless steel for compression. I 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.120 keep in mind, there are lots of different types of strength, right, 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:10.520 There's tensile strength, there's compressive strength, there's the you know 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.320 how how impact sort of strength. There's all these kind 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:16.600 of different approaches that you have to look at. And 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.320 in fact, they needed to find a glass that was 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:23.520 going to be shatter proof, which not that unusual. I mean, 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.439 we've seen bulletproof glass, so it's not like this kind 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.840 of stuff doesn't exist. Sure, And and tempering glass is 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.120 they talked about it on the site and it's one 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.160 of the things that they get very right. I think, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.520 and as far as I know about material science, that 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:42.359 that the tempering process does more or less, uh, that 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.040 that thing of of making things very strong and can 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.560 also involve you know, shatter resistant coatings or you know 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:51.680 the kind of glass that's used for example, in car 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:56.000 wind shields to uh that that will crumble rather than 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:58.640 charting right right, you won't end up with these these 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:02.320 incredibly sharp yards of glass. You would have this sort 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:07.239 of glass rubble that would be a pain to clean up, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.199 but not so dangerous, yes, less less dangerous. Um. And 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.400 they also needed to pick one that they could add 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.280 a texture to the top of so that vehicles could 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.760 have traction from them. That's kind of important because if 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.439 you would imagine just driving a vehicle over, you know, 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.680 like a glass mirror, that would suck. Not to be fair, 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.719 rubber against glass is that you get some traction. But 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.080 add water to that because I don't know if you've 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.560 been outside, but sometimes it rains, and sometimes it rains 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.760 when you need to drive somewhere occasionally. So they were 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:44.240 looking at raising like they have actually another hexagonal pattern 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.960 on top of this giant hexagon that is repeated that 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:55.119 creates the texture so that it helps tires gripped the road. Um. 0:19:55.240 --> 0:20:00.840 They claimed that the gripping tests were outperformed asphalt. Uh. 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.840 I don't know exactly how all those tests were conducted, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.320 but that's that's the claim. Yeah. I also believe that. 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.760 They claim that the the pattern of the glass acts 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.640 like a like a prism to help direct the light 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.800 down into the photovoltaics beneath it. And as for the 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.120 l d s, those are light emitting diodes. We talked 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:23.240 about that in the past. Diodes are very basic electronic components, 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.439 one of the basic components in electronics. So anyone who 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:28.760 happens to have worked with electronics, like if you build 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.080 a circuit, you've probably at some time or another wired 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.679 an LED to some sort of circuit. They don't require 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.080 a lot of energy. They can put off a fairly 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.440 bright light depending upon the LED that you're using. Um. 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.280 Scott Bruso also claims that the prism like nature of 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.160 those hexagons that Lauren was just talking about also allow 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.119 the l d s to project light out six different ways. 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.160 I have no idea what that means. I think he's 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:57.160 talking about, Um, you know, for for that pattern, Oh, 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:02.640 I see, I see capacity right right, Um, it's certainly interesting. Uh. Anyway, 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.439 then we got the heating element, right, which are you know, 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:09.560 similar to the wires that might run through your your 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:12.679 rear windshield that that help you defrost your car in 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.399 the winter and uh, he says. Bruce Saw says that 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:18.800 the tests showed that heating the heating element works well 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:21.480 and can prevent snow and ice from forming on the 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:25.920 road itself. They show off a a single solar panel 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.639 hexabon test photos, yes, surrounded by others covered in snow 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.080 that have not had the heating element turned on. Uh. 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.119 Then you would have some form of other sensors in 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:38.000 the in the panel, because you would have to have 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:40.760 them in order to detect pressure for the other element. 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.560 We were talking about where an animal or child or 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:45.880 something else is in the road, and thus the road 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.080 is detecting that and alerting the drivers to it so 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.520 that they can prepare themselves. Like I can see this 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.200 being really useful in lots of different ways. Like in California, 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:57.760 my wife and I went on a road trip where 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:02.399 we went down a road that frequently would get covered 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.080 up by by mud slides during the rain, and it 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.560 was pouring down rain, and sure enough we had to 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:12.560 skirt around a couple of mud slides. And when you've 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.000 got a precipitous drop to the Pacific Ocean on the 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:18.160 other side of it, that's a somewhat of a nerve 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.800 wracking experience. Now, I mentioned that the microprocessors had little 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.040 WiFi elements in them that allow them to talk to 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.680 each other communication. Yeah, the important part of that would be. 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:31.439 One of the important parts of that, besides sending the 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:35.120 messages so that the right messages are displayed to drivers 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:38.720 so that they're alerted to changing conditions, is that if 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:42.360 a panel were to malfunction, let's say it was hit 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:47.879 by lightning or some other thing damaged it. Maybe a 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:50.960