Does anyone know why they are building it in a seemingly less populated/ prosperous province?
Little to no environmental regs, NIMBYism, or corruption
L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
41–50 of 79 posts
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
China probably sees it as being in their long-term interest to prop up American hyperloop companies so that Americans don't come to their senses and build trains. The longer we're distracted by hyperloops, on-demand taxi services, and self-driving cars the deeper our technological hole becomes.
>so that Americans don't come to their senses and build trains And how is that working out for California? Rail is by far the single most expensive form of transportation on a per-passenger basis.
I would say cars are!
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely serious question given the downvotes: Is this discouraged or banned on HN? Whenever I hit a paywall from an HN link, I immediately go to the comments to see if somebody has linked to the full article. Thought I'd help folks out since nobody had done that for this article yet, but if I'm out of line I won't do it again.
You might be being downvoted because your link doesn’t avoid the paywall.
Really? Works for me...
That would explain it though.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the criticism isn't that it couldn't possibly work, but rather that it was impractical and expensive. Basically, its the modern monorail.
"impractical and expensive" are invalid criticisms in the face of no other alternatives other than more cars and freeways. The monorail at Disneyland works great and so does the one in Seattle.
Yea, monorails do work great.
They don't need to be surrounded by a vacuum tube, which is the impractical and expensive part.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#45This move was very puzzling to me, in light of Trump's trade tactics. Especially, of his accusations that China "steals" American technology. So, given this, why would any new American company, choose to enter into a 51/49 partnership with China? Where China has the majority share, and where the American company must share with their Chinese partner, all the system processes, techniques, and new technology of their p…
Political theater isn't the same as business opportunity analysis. Also keep in mind that the US presidency has a limit of two terms. If Trump enters into the calculations, he doesn't enter into them permanently. Transportation systems, especially rail, are long term investments.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to be kidding, right? How much do you think it would cost, per mile, to build roads capable of moving 100k people per hour? That's a 100-lane freeway. California High Speed Rail is being built because of all the alternatives studied it was, by a large margin, the cheapest. Freeways and airports are much more costly for the same capacity.
Even the most optimistic published ridership projection for CAHSR is 200k riders per day, not 100k per hour.
Well, to be fair, the estimated average annual daily traffic for the most traveled LA freeways isn't anywhere near 100K per hour, either. It's around ~400K vehicles per day, and assuming 1.5 average riders per vehicle, that's 600K people. So if 200K riders per day is the most optimistic published ridership projection for CAHSR, it's not at all a bad number. (Acela's daily ridership appears to be closer to 30K, though, so I would be really surprised if the CA system is that high.)
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#47Basically means China will learn and develop their own hyperloop technology based on other's plans.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#48Very cool to see this technology progress. Will be interesting to track. China certainly has shown that it both can invest in and build public infrastructure at an amazing scale and pace. It's a little concerning that this isn't really a sale - it's a joint venture. From the article: "HyperloopTT will form a joint venture with the Tongren authorities, according to the Guizhou provincial government, though the company…
which part is the interesting technology?
the train or the tunnel?
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are building a new, cool mass-transit system here, there's going to be a small-bore tunnel with electric skates between downtown Chicago and the airport. Edit: clarified what "it" is.
That is just a regular type tunnel built by the Boring Company and using electric vehicles in it. Not an evacuated tunnel with very fast vehicles. Spending extra for Hyperloop speeds really only make sense for longer distances. Not sure why this Chinese project is so short unless it is just a bigger type demo for the company and China hopes to acquire the technology like it has for so many other advanced systems inve…
That Chicago system is novel in several ways, but if you don't think it's as cool as other projects, that's fine.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like the eventual plan is to link the airport to a tourist spot and the city is just the first stop on the way through. Might also be cheaper/easier to do in a less populated area.
Are they tunneling? That area is really rocky and mountainous, unless it is going on a viaduct I don’t see how this will work out.
The article is light on specifics, so no idea.