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Re:The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing... by thaumaturgy on Saturday August 17, 2019 @06:51PM (#20726947)
Yeah, this is how I see it too. It was an experiment. It failed. Things were learned from deploying it into a real-world environment. This may contribute in some way to a future technology, as often happens.

HN of course is full of people who are experts on every topic, so naturally there was no need to actually perform this experiment. They could have just accurately predicted its faults and performance from theorizing alone after reading just a few articles about materials science and the properties of modern roads.

While we're busy talking about the obvious and predictable failure of this experiment, we should also take a moment to also revisit the obvious and predictable failure that was Dropbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6625306

Re:The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing... by roar-of-time on Sunday August 18, 2019 @01:01AM (#20728335)
The comments on that page are overwhelmingly friendly. And regardless, how can you even compare the two?! Dropbox fulfilled an obvious need and fulfilled it very well, whereas "solar roads" don't seem to be a solution to any problem at all!
Re:The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing... by zzzcpan on Saturday August 17, 2019 @07:06PM (#20727018)
Unlike in dropbox case, this is something people with engineering degrees that often include physics and material sciences can actually calculate.
Re:The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing... by DanBC on Sunday August 18, 2019 @05:23AM (#20729177)
> Things were learned from deploying it into a real-world environment.

Nothing was learned.