[extropy-chat] Nuke 'em

[Adrian Tymes]

--- David Lubkin <extropy at unreasonable.com> wrote:
> During the peak of interest in maglev, I recall someone had the idea 
> of running personal rapid transit over the existing asphalt network, 
> since it already goes most everywhere and the rights-of-way have been
> settled. It would be powered (in part) by replacing the asphalt with 
> solar collectors. There was also the thought that if the collectors 
> were sturdy enough, existing vehicular traffic could co-exist on the 
> network, making a gradual transition possible.

> Why did the concept disappear? Is it that solar collectors got better
> but not enough better? The conversion cost was too high?

It hasn't - quite.  But new ventures take business sense to get them
adopted, and it looks like the biz side of this could use some help.
Or so I guess from the fact that their Web server is down, and that
their Google cache was all about promoting the tech but didn't announce
so much as a pilot installation:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:0Vne0U7zJwsJ:www.solarpavement.com/faqs.htm++site:www.solarpavement.com+%22solar+pavement%22&hl=en
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&q=+site:www.solarpavement.com+%22solar+pavement%22