I pitched a couple of bucks towards the project because I saw several other implementations of the exact same ideas work at Burning Man... a pathway that was lit by solar power, reacted to people walking on it, and involved interesting materials, science, electronics, and human interaction. And two of those projects survived the highly alkaline desert environment, and went back to Burning Man several times. So yeah... the technology works. It's not magic like cold fusion. But like I said in my other comment, I always saw this as a pedestrian thing, maybe with limited use on non-commercial-vehicle roads (like bike paths, parking lots, etc.). So yeah. I have seen similar projects work, and work pretty well. I was hoping that instead of an "artist" building an "art installation", something with proper funding would come up with something more resilient and commercially viable. I still hold that hope. Hell... how long has Moller been at it?
There's a difference between exhibition-grade technology and installation-grade technology. I remember at InfoCOMM 2001 Pioneer made the entire floor of their booth out of 42" plasma TVs covered in Lexan. It was damn impressive. it dusted the shit out of the magic floor in Saturday Night Fever. And it only lost a panel or two over the space of three days. Of course it works. It's damn solar panels. We've been launching them into space for over 60 years. What's increased over the past six decades isn't so much "technology" as "technological hubris." "Temporarily babysat for a week at a festival" has virtually nothing to do with "Permanently installed at an unmanned location". You can do all sorts of dumb shit when the install doesn't have to outlive an open container of yogurt. Things get a little dicier in the land of "light fuse walk away." As an aside, this is the first time I've seen Moller held up as a positive example of anything.