I dunno... like any new technology, I always figured the Solar Roadways idea would first be implemented in public pedestrian areas, and then maybe bike paths, and then parking lots, and finally some limited use in roads on private property... like the parking lots and roads around college or corporate campuses.

Start small. Try some shit out. When it breaks, figure out why it broke, and iterate. Then do it again.

And, honestly, it seems like they are doing just that.

Did they way over-promise, and under-deliver? Sure. But the Apple I sucked balls, had wires sticking out everywhere, and didn't have any software. And now I type this on a MacBook that is the result of decades of innovation and iteration.

Will we ever build a freeway out of glass hexagons that suck down some solar energy? No. Probably not. (Although you can bet the Dutch will. They always do cool technical public-works projects.)

Here's a late-middle-aged couple in Idaho, who built their Apple I, and everyone expected Elon Musk-style flash and bang and zip and polish... and what they built kinda worked a little, but they made some really amateurish errors and assumptions, and way over-promised.

Then they owned up to it. Talked about what went wrong, and what they learned, and didn't get defeated.

Aren't they just another pair of entrepreneurs with big audacious goals, built on the promise of a prototype they made?

I really don't understand why they get so much hate. They shot for the Moon, and the rocket fizzled on the platform. So what? That happens a LOT. The thing that separates the fizzles on the platform, and the history-making Moon-shots, are diligence, persistence, and a willingness to keep working down the problems until you have something great.

I really don't see anything different here than any other alpha-stage product development experience.