Astucia SolarLite LED studs light up highways after dark
By Darren Murph 
posted November 21st 2007 4:58PM
posted November 21st 2007 4:58PM
[Via Autoblog]
posted November 21st 2007 4:58PM
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Typo:
"from dust 'til dawn"
Eh? Dust?
In dusty conditions, light is needed on the road. He's completely correct. What did you think he meant, Dusk? Ha Ha, No.
Smart Stud?
I wish I had a dime for every time I was called that.
@ mickey jones comment, if you had a dime every time that hapenned.. you'd probably end up owing somehow.. moron!!! what the hell kinda comment was that?
I wonder if they will last in snow areas where big plows may rip them right off the road.
"...emitting light from dust 'til dawn..."
I wasn't aware there was a time of day known as dust. Maybe these are only on gravel and dirt roads?
Yea because nobody, especially us dummies on a tech blog would have never known what he really meant.
Yeah because it wasn't a light hearted joke. You should take anonymous comments MORE SERIOUSER!
The Internet. Serious business.
Srsly.
The Internet. Seriouser business.
This is a great idea. I don't know how many times I've almost run off an unfamiliar road at night because I couldn't see an oncoming turn until I was right upon it.
To improve upon the idea, when the weight of a car drives presses on top of them, it should generate additional power (by a downward force) by adding a piezoelectric generation or some other force dynamo in to the "reflector"; allowing it to gain an additional charge during inclement weather or overcast days. Such a system would not replace the solar charger but would be an augmentation and would work to assure a charge remained throughout the starry night.
re: I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY
Only if you enjoy driving along the edge of the road or with your wheels dangerously close to the center of the road. :)
I dread to think how much this would cost to install!
Instead of wasting it on the whole road. This is only needed on a curve road and you really dont need to have them on a straight road.
@Bloobie
It will work. Not every car will hit it, many will stay with in the line but some will stray out side or on the line. We have all run in to the reflectors or gone too fast in to a curve only to find ourselves slightly in the other lane and then correct the matter a moment later.
@James Cameron
It's not a waste - since moving from the UK to mainland Europe I hate the fact that so few roads have "cats eyes" or their equivalent. In poor weather conditions and especially in heavy rain, straight line paint markers are totally useless and you can't tell what lane your in. In the UK they're a god-send as they help to keep you from straying into other traffic or off the road.
No they don't, I hear almost everybody drives on the wrong side almost all the time in britain.
2 Rants.
1. I think people go to blogs just to be Grammar-esque Nazi's. Because obviously most people care about everything but the subject matter.
2. What is up with that Apple ads. Is it not proper internet etiquette to have ADs with audio, uh, MUTED. Therefore unmuted by people who have an interest in said ad. THX FOR THAT REALLY LOUD ANNOYING AD.
Side-Note, I think the LED's are cool. I personally would love to see it come over state-side. But imagine the fool who's high off drugs, thinking the highway is some kind of rave panel. Hence a higher increase in high-speed pursuits, or crashes.
I think you're an Ad-Nazi. Plus, did you not see the other, multiple posts about that ad? How many comments sections are we going to have to talk about this thing in?
If you couldn't read, I was not regarding the Ad taking 50% of the screen (which was the purpose of that post).
No, I was regarding the fact that maybe 1 out of 5 times I load EnGadget, it plays the Apple Ad unmuted.
I think you're an interweb-Nazi. But I won't tell anyone else. ;)
This is why AdBlock was invented.
"Nazis"
I have these around the corner where I live, and they are totally great
Drivers can now fully act out their pilot fantasies...just try not to land..its still a highway and not runway
F-ZERO!!!!!!!
Am I the only one who thought that when i read this? yeah? Okay I'm a dork....
What happens in the winter?
Around here, it'd be great for those roads without streetlights (which is most of them), but we're just a short drive from Buffalo and "seven-feet-of-snow-days."
I was wondering that too. I suppose they've a way to keep the plows from shaving them off but in of places which you speak, it gets deep fast.
They would have to be recessed into the road like the current passive reflectors, so they don't get plowed out by snowplows.
They aren't so much recessed (they've been around for a couple of years now on the A38) as they are plungers. They have sloped sides and push down into the road (we've had cats eyes for a *long* time now and they don't get torn up every year!) which, IIRC, actually causes them to get wiped by spring loaded rollers and cleaned up :) It is an odd sensation when you realise you can see the cats eyes glowing *behind* you as well as infront!
We don't get days like that in Britain (except on rare occasions, and maybe in Scotland). It would only be a problem if they took it abroad.
Why couldnt a few of these evey couple meters be equipped with rfid, allowing a car with gps and rfid reader drive itself?
Because then the tinfoil-hatters would whine about how the government is trying to keep them down by tracking their movements with RFID.
Technically, you wouldn't need RFID. You could have then all emit infrared light that an on-board camera tracks on.
Which is so silly, since the majority RFID tags are PASSIVE, letting them do absolutely nothing in terms of tracking anything. Now, if the cars had tags in them, and the studs had readers, that would be a different story. But hey, who bothers getting it right when you have paranoia on your side?
Imagine how much it'd cost?
"Technically, you wouldn't need RFID. You could have then all emit infrared light that an on-board camera tracks on."
And then sit at the side of the road running people into the ditch with a TV remote. Awesome!
If it was programmed correctly, you'd track several infrared sources, verify they are in a relatively straight/gradual curve line and that single iR remote or a collection of goofs standing next to a ditch would trigger an alarm in the car alerting the driver of a loss of tracking and the car slowing down. That is of course, if the iR tracking was poorly programmed and couldn't sort out random dots from a line of dots. I'm pretty sure image processing has gone beyond what you could do with an iR remote.
Great! So now I can drive with no headlights, and pretend its 1978 and I'm playing the old driving arcade games.
Perhaps they can equip these with those retina burning lasers so they can burn through the layers of snow and ice.
And how are they attached to the road?
How solid are they?
After how many vehicules (cars, but also heavy trucks) driving on them will they be squashed?
I'm guessing they work like the current reflective inserts. It's basically a metal casing with a reflector between two metal "protector" walls:
http://longford.ca/landscapes/albums/userpics/roadreflector-killashee.jpg
Hopefully there won't be too many people driving close enough to the edge of the road to run them over.
how do current reflectors survive? They do. So there is no reason these won't either. Plus if you read the whole thing they last up to 10 years.
These are being used for some areas in New Zealand now, and they rock!
Cool, where abouts exactly, do you know?
Does this remind anyone else of 'Night Driver' on the Atari 2600?
Yes... totally lame game, even for it's time.
We have these on a major road not far from where I live. These are a huge improvment over the old 'cats eyes', but I always find them a distraction as they can be seen in the rear-view and side mirrors behind me, unlike the older ones.
Oh, now that's a problem :( They should be set in the ground facing traffic only.
well who says they arent facing traffic? because your going forward the ones that are facing the opposite side of traffic would be in you eyes from the mirrors... but they really should only shine on your left side...