Google Reveals Its Electric Self-Driving Car Prototype

[Ragnar47183]

*Snip*

You know what? I feel like theres a culture gap here. I feel like ultimately we both want the same thing just in different ways.

We both want progress just I want to make sure there is no needless sacrifices for progress to happen. Im even sure we agree in a lot of places about the government. I dont like what my government has been doing but there isn't a whole lot you can do to change it since the United States is so big. Its much harder to change policies in the U.s. than it is there.

I also think (for the U.s. anyway) that these cars are about the least of our issues. In fact, Ii would love for this to take hold first.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways

This would fix a ton of issues and the benefits would far outweigh the cost. This would allow a clean energy source and would actually make electric cars much more attractive and cheaper. It would also reduce the overall cost of repairs on raods and telephone poles as well as allowing the outdated internet and phone infrastructural to be replaced.

I would much rather see money being spent towards this before these google cars. In fact, doing this first would make the google cars much more possible. Also seeing as these solar roads are already made and ready to be installed its a much closer goal to aim for.

Also I would try to not generalize Americans just because they are American in the future. There are a lot of stereotypes for us that simple arent true. Also I hate patriotism (Its a stupid idea) and would prefer not to be defined by the place I grew up in which is something I couldn't control.

 

[Strazdas]

*Snip*

You know what? I feel like theres a culture gap here. I feel like ultimately we both want the same thing just in different ways.

We both want progress just I want to make sure there is no needless sacrifices for progress to happen. Im even sure we agree in a lot of places about the government. I dont like what my government has been doing but there isn't a whole lot you can do to change it since the United States is so big. Its much harder to change policies in the U.s. than it is there.

I also think (for the U.s. anyway) that these cars are about the least of our issues. In fact, Ii would love for this to take hold first.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways

This would fix a ton of issues and the benefits would far outweigh the cost. This would allow a clean energy source and would actually make electric cars much more attractive and cheaper. It would also reduce the overall cost of repairs on raods and telephone poles as well as allowing the outdated internet and phone infrastructural to be replaced.

I would much rather see money being spent towards this before these google cars. In fact, doing this first would make the google cars much more possible. Also seeing as these solar roads are already made and ready to be installed its a much closer goal to aim for.

Also I would try to not generalize Americans just because they are American in the future. There are a lot of stereotypes for us that simple arent true. Also I hate patriotism (Its a stupid idea) and would prefer not to be defined by the place I grew up in which is something I couldn't control.

I agree there certainly is a cultural gap here.
As far as solar roadways, escapist reported on it and it was a bad idea for many reasons.
to make them clear enough to act like solar collectors you need to have them slick, and thats just outright dangerous in wet or snow enviroment.
They are very expensive, a single tile costs 8000 dollars, which means that a single meter of a 3 lane road would cost a million. how many meters of roads do we have? now that is too expensive solution, not having new readout detectors in cones on the side of the road that we already have placed (for safety purposes).
the material solar panels are made off are quite toxic, which means high maintenance and plenty of damage to enviroment manufacturing them. solar panels are actually a bad thing, because you cause more harm manufacturing them than you save by utilizing its energy, which brings us to another point
solar power is weak. our solar pannels do not generate enough energy to be significant in our power consumtion. we could literally lay flat whole surface of the earth in solar pannels and it would not produce enough energy to sate our current consumption.
and last but not least - the panels are weak. we got traffic, especially trucks, that bash holes in and literally displace asphalt by sheer weight and repeated driving. the displacement is so bad in some streets here that i can let go of the wheel and it would drive itself like it were on tracks. they replace the road every few years but its a very busy street and it gets used up again. are those panels going to be stronger than asphalt roads? or is it going to end in crash and burn?

SO yeah, i still remain with i would rather see self driving cars before these. because solar roads as they are now is unworkable.