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The Boring Company [video]

boringcompany.com

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Re: The Boring Company [video]

#771

Post by Retric »

osdiab wrote: post #739
Retric wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A well managed train system can manage 1 car per line per 5 minutes. 2000 * 60 / 5 = 24,000 people per hour. Highways can handle 2,000 - 2200 vehicles per lane or so at the low end 1/12 but that's very much an edge case. Most lines are closer to one train every 20 minutes and you can average 3 people per car which makes them equivalent. The real issue is not highways, but what happens when people try and get off or o…

It's less of an edge case than you may think, given solo ridership numbers here in the USA. 75% commute alone. https://www.census.gov/hhes/commuting/files/2014/acs-32.pdf

The average over the full US is kind of meaningless as most areas don't have traffic problems. It's only large city's that actually matter in this assessment.

On page 4, 2006: 80% used a carpool or single occupancy car. 2013: 76% used a carpool or single occupancy car which is counter to their narrative. Further, metro areas are rather large, I commute less than 3 miles on secondary roads in the DC metro area from just outside the beltway to just inside of it and encounter approximately zero traffic.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#772

Post by theptip »

tigershark wrote: post #763
theptip wrote: post #718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those Crossrail numbers give $0.2B/mile, including a lot of miles of track that aren't tunnels. After digging a bit I found this, which is a good summary: https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r... It seems that $1B/__km__ (not mile, you're right) is sadly par for the course in the US, and Crossrail passes that threshold too. Projects elsewhere are below that threshold though.

No the total number include the tunnels, the tracks outside and 40 (FORTY) underground stations. The specific figure of 1.25B£ is taken from the official documents for 18km of tunnels alone. So do you think that an unknown blog that throws some figures without any reference must be more accurate than the official figures , reported in public documents accessible to everyone, that explicitly says that 18km of tunnels…

No need to get stroppy, calm down.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#773

Post by hyperbole »

cbhl wrote: post #508
Xcelerate wrote: post #377

It's amazing to me the amount of negativity directed toward his projects and the millions of reasons people give for why they "won't work" (not necessarily on HN, but at least on general news websites). I'm starting to believe the only difference between those who start their own companies and those who don't is that the latter convinces themselves that it is impossible, never builds anything, and from their own lack…

I think it's more nuanced than that. You can break down the world into the 99% that "know" that it's impossible. They'll never invent that world-changing thing. That leaves 1% that "don't know" that it's impossible. Of that 1%, 99% will try and fail. The remaining 1% of the 1% succeed, like George Dantzig (who came late to a Stats class at UC Berkeley, thought some problems on the board were homework, and a few days…

I find it hard to believe the common case for the 1% of the 1% always succeed because of sheer luck, brillance (although those things certainly can help).

The 1% of the 1% succeed because they are driven to find success, because they are relentlessly applying logic to the problems they face, because of determination - because they don't give up. I think the term thrown around these days is grit.

So yes, share what happened before, but more than likely those with 'grit' are going to figure out what has been tried before on their own and sometimes they'll reapply what failed in the past and make it work.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#774

Post by cma »

ceejayoz wrote: post #688
Robotbeat wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every subway contains a whole bunch of sliding doors that open and close every single stop.

Yes, and they frequently need repair and maintenance. Now imagine having tens of thousands of subway cars instead of a couple hundred.

There are tens of thousands of teslas out there already with automatic doors.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#775

Post by smichel17 »

hyperbole wrote: post #773
cbhl wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more nuanced than that. You can break down the world into the 99% that "know" that it's impossible. They'll never invent that world-changing thing. That leaves 1% that "don't know" that it's impossible. Of that 1%, 99% will try and fail. The remaining 1% of the 1% succeed, like George Dantzig (who came late to a Stats class at UC Berkeley, thought some problems on the board were homework, and a few days…

I find it hard to believe the common case for the 1% of the 1% always succeed because of sheer luck, brillance (although those things certainly can help). The 1% of the 1% succeed because they are driven to find success, because they are relentlessly applying logic to the problems they face, because of determination - because they don't give up. I think the term thrown around these days is grit. So yes, share what ha…

Those things are not mutually exclusive.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#776

Post by greglindahl »

accountyaccount wrote: post #466
jbooth wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not thought provoking, it's a series of thought terminating cliches. I'm as liberal as they come, I'm very sensitive to disguised racism, but the tweets' entire basis of comparison between Musk and Moses is "both are/were ambitious men and now musk is talking about infrastructure". It's free-association garbage. The Moses story is fascinating because he accomplished great things that built NYC but was also a hor…

Let's not forget that Musk literally said he wants to bore tunnels because it takes him too long to get to work... and this video is essentially showcasing a rapid transit system for people who own his cars. Musk also claimed Tesla's solar roof would cost less than a "normal" roof... (PS Musk considers a "normal" roof to be made of slate) The "affordable" (his words) Model 3 has a standard configuration of about $40k…

I watched the roof reveal and Elon made it clear he was comparing to prices of high-end roofing material.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#778

Post by prawn »

p0nce wrote: post #303
avn2109 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "(personal opinion: there are none coming)" Former tunnel boring engineer here. There is a ton of room for innovation around tunnel boring machines built by the major manufacturers (primarily Herrenknecht and Robbins), around reliability, durability, ease of serviceability etc. I cannot emphasize enough how modern TBM's require an unbelievable amount of engineering attention, repair labor, spare parts infrastructu…

Fantastic post, thanks. I have a naïve question about subterrean _housing_. With the real estate skyrocketing in some cities, and scarcity of terrain, I wonder why there is not much more underground liveable habitations (for example, near an expensive city center with no space left).

Even if just having a semi-underground floor with ground level windows for a bit of extra space (gym, etc) for residences.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#779

Post by prawn »

ceejayoz wrote: post #326
p0nce wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fantastic post, thanks. I have a naïve question about subterrean _housing_. With the real estate skyrocketing in some cities, and scarcity of terrain, I wonder why there is not much more underground liveable habitations (for example, near an expensive city center with no space left).

London is seeing a bit of this - people are building massive 3+ story basements under existing properties. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/24/business/going-underground-lon...

For anyone interested, there are a few Grand Designs episodes featuring underground residential work. Some are quite inventive due to space constraints. Amazing how expensive some of the groundworks can be dealing with weather or underpinning neighbouring properties.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#780

Post by astrodust »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #697
astrodust wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me a working 600mph tube train and then you'll have a case of a superior technology. Until then it's just an idea on a napkin. China is building new, high-speed maglev trains and there's many lines already open for business. Maybe one day Hyperloop will get built and will be open for passenger travel. When that day comes it's possible that surface rail may have already achieved the same speed because third or fo…

Anything is possible, but you were making the claim they they exist, which they definitely do not. They might theoretically someday exist, but so might Hyperloop.

The idea of a 600mph train running in evacuated tunnels is about as old as the idea of trains itself: http://io9.gizmodo.com/5731620/in-an-alternate-universe-ther...

China is looking at building something like that: http://www.zdnet.com/article/china-developing-600-mph-airles...

Note that it's an above-ground system because the costs of building underground are utterly ridiculous for long distances.

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