Poof! Well There Goes One Dream...Solar Roof

Solar won't improve much because of the mark up. I'm sure they could build cheap and very efficient panels, just look to the space industry. But this is a capitalistic market and it's just not as profitable to do things that way.
I've read about solar technology where the road surface is a million little diamond shaped solar cells to allow for traction. A car is outfitted much like the old slot cars with a couple conducing straps. The straps touch in two different locations on the road surface and charges the car's batteries as it drives down the road.

To answer your question Pnic there are a few different types of solar roofs and construction.

one construction method you have "Foot holds" so you can walk on the roof without walking on the solar cells

Other solar cells are more or less flexible so you can walk on 'em no damge.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-20/inside-elon-musk-s-forgotten-gigafactory-2-in-buffalo

An entire RV roof, nearly every square inch...I would loved to see it become a reality

Hmmmm .... over the past 40 years .... myself, my wife, and various maintenance workers have walked on our stick house roof "doing things", "modifying things", and "fixing things" - most of this not at all related to the roof material itself. I've done the same on our RV roof. I wonder how a complete solar roof would handle this kind of real life high pounds per square inch wear and tear?

It seems like the first and most important solar power priority for nearly every solar power installation going forward should be to get the efficiency of solar panels way, way above their current 18-22% conversion range. I hope this is a no-brainer regarding where solar power research dollars are being concentrated.