I'm never quite trusting of any article that starts by linking to their own previous article, with a tone of "I told you so."
Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
61–70 of 177 posts
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#62Of course the hyperloop is a joke. Elon Musk has zero experience or training in transportation infrastructure, but we are supposed to have faith in some idea he farted out in a white paper, why? Because he has skillfully cultivated his image as a "genius", and we bought it? The hyperloop was nothing more than a (savvy) PR move to cement his image as a "visionary". That it actually got funded only goes to show what gullible shmucks some venture capitalists are.
Edit: I worked on the LHC for several years. The challenges of maintaining a closed vacuum pipe that spanned a mere 17 miles were vast and expensive. Musk proposes doing it on an exponentially larger scale without addressing the challenges and pitfalls involved. Until he does so, I cannot take him seriously.
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#63One thing the article misses is inflexibility. One of the big disadvantages of rail is that once the track is deployed it is very costly and difficult to upgrade it. One thing I'd want in any "futuristic" freight hauling method would be ease of scaling I don't think Hyperloop offers anything over rail in this regard once track is installed you are more or less stuck with the installed capacity forever. A computer ana…
The thousand-dollar-per-strawberry market cares a lot about latency, and not one jot about bulk handling capacity.
Getting from Napa Valley to New York, New York in an hour without sitting in a box in the sun would be a big win.
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an elevated track so it really could be designed to deal with that kind of break. Water, Oil, and Gas pipelines for example have long dealt with those issues without breaking when designed correctly.
How do oil pipes do this? Automatic cutoffs every mile?
There are a wide range of solutions: https://sfwater.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=577... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pipeline/peopleevents/e_quakes....
Sliders https://www.quora.com/Why-do-oil-pipelines-that-transfer-oil...
Now doing this without bending the long pipe is going to be harder, but you really could design this thing so riders don't notice a magnitude 9 earthquake.
PS: In the end you get into cost benefit designing it to survive an aircraft impact is probably not worth it let alone a nuke, but predictable earthquakes are not that hard.
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dunno... I'd feel much more comfortable if all humanities smartest technical people were trying to make the next whatsapp clone /s
Contrarily, I'd feel more comfortable if "idea guys" like Musk would leave the engineering to actual engineers.
Don't challenge the Musk hero worship!
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#66One thing the article misses is inflexibility. One of the big disadvantages of rail is that once the track is deployed it is very costly and difficult to upgrade it. One thing I'd want in any "futuristic" freight hauling method would be ease of scaling I don't think Hyperloop offers anything over rail in this regard once track is installed you are more or less stuck with the installed capacity forever. A computer ana…
> A computer analogy I'd give is to think of freight handling like information communication
Unsurprisingly, a lot of the theory for transport networks maps extremely well to computer networks.
Transport is essentially a literal packet switched network. You have routers (depots), routes (roads, rails, etc), packets (in many cases, literally packets), MTUs (twenty foot containers, or truckloads).
Queuing theory equally applies to both as well (and a lot of other physical applications, at university we had an exercise applying it to customer support).
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#67One thing the article misses is inflexibility. One of the big disadvantages of rail is that once the track is deployed it is very costly and difficult to upgrade it. One thing I'd want in any "futuristic" freight hauling method would be ease of scaling I don't think Hyperloop offers anything over rail in this regard once track is installed you are more or less stuck with the installed capacity forever. A computer ana…
Well the article's author could have put more emphasize on the inflexibility, but reading the Parts on airfreight and trucks I think he got the gist of it. Good read.
Concerning "barf rides": wouldn't Strong and well-timed anesthetics help?
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#68Of course the hyperloop is a joke. Elon Musk has zero experience or training in transportation infrastructure, but we are supposed to have faith in some idea he farted out in a white paper, why? Because he has skillfully cultivated his image as a "genius", and we bought it? The hyperloop was nothing more than a (savvy) PR move to cement his image as a "visionary". That it actually got funded only goes to show what gu…
Would you be able to tell us about some of the problems the LHC faced? Hyperloop aside, this is an interesting subject.
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
The best legitimate criticisms I've seen are here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RNFesa01llk Basically expansion and contraction as well as just plain vulnerability of running a vacuum make it extremely difficult to do practically. The phrase he uses, "all the problems of space travel except in a gun barrel" is a pretty accurate description of the issue. Any loss of vacuum will almost guarantee loss of life. No reali…
You assume that Hyperloop's tube will run a vacuum, which is a misconception. The Hyperloop One design uses low pressure tubes which is completely different from being completely evacuated.
Vacuum doesn't exist for all practical purposes, every form of vacuum is just low pressure. So if you don't say anything about what level of vacuum or how low the pressure is your statement is meaningless.
Re: Hyperloop Freight is a Joke
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reading through the criticisms the consensus is "sure, this can work if you allocate 10-100x more money than estimated." I'm not sure if it's truly innovative if it costs more, places considerable stress (up to 0.5g!) on the rider/cargo (what the author calls a "barf ride"). The analysis picks apart the touted benefits of additional speed when ultimately the capacity is lower and it takes longer to depart. In the cas…
I think the biggest point the article makes is the great deal of care that needs to be taken in packing loads to meet weight requirements and avoid movement of goods in transit. What makes sense for international air mail doesn't make sense for a four hour journey by truck, especially if that truck can take a container straight from the ship to the city depot without carefully repacking everything, or go door to door…
Yes. With what exactly does freight-hyperloop try to compete? Trucks are more flexible while freight rail is struggling on most routes and speed seems of least concern there.