51–60 of 237 posts
What a gong show and waste of everyone's time. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1075230308545454080 How can this man honestly think this sort of system could be higher capacity than a subway?
Well even if it weren't higher capacity, it has other advantages -- no parking/leaving the car, potentially no ticket gates or waiting for a train... etc. Trying new ideas isn't a waste of everyone's time, it's research.
Is this safe? I didn't see any escape paths. What happens if there is a fire and you are in the sixth tube down? Electric trains are considered quite safe yet tunnels have a lot of escape paths and service tunnels built parallel to the main one.
It is not, per general EU regulations no 'single bore' tunnel can be longer than 1km (0.62miles0. Tunnels that are longer than that, either have to be double tunnels, with escape doors between them, or one large tunnel and an emergency smaller one. This looks the size of a emergency tunnel. Still, the cost of building it seems pretty low. Boring Co could build two side by side, (one for each direction) and have emerg…
What a gong show and waste of everyone's time. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1075230308545454080 How can this man honestly think this sort of system could be higher capacity than a subway?
I thought it was obvious this would quickly become an expensive express option. It's not going to fix traffic for the masses, it's going to fix it for the rich.
What a gong show and waste of everyone's time. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1075230308545454080 How can this man honestly think this sort of system could be higher capacity than a subway?
1. most subways don't operate at 150 MPH
2. subways stop at every stop even if the majority of passengers aren't getting on or off
3. subways can't route individuals (or small groups) directly to their destination, including via normal roads
Automation allows for all sorts of new options in vehicles. This is a platform and many services can sit atop it. No reason why people can’t develop a carpooling service for 6-12 person vans and run those on this. Or services that travel to clients rather than visa versa.
Also, and very important to the cost argument, is that system cost is offset by individuals and external services purchasing fleets. This makes it a lot more practical a transit option to build than typical public transit or freeway fixes which require multi-year, multi-billion dollar outlays and consequent decision making apparatus. Consider what properties an ideal transit option has:
a) easy to add very incremental capacity (vs big long projects)
b) doesn’t have to deal with right of way
c) shares costs with private market & individuals
d) can reach any location point-to-point
e) offers broad access to citizens
Seems this + autonomous fleets serving different market segments and needs has these properties. If it works.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine it’ll also probably be hell on tires. You’d need W- or Z-rated tires to do that and those are $$. Perhaps smooth concrete will mean lower rolling friction along with lack of sudden maneouvers. Still, going that fast is expensive in all sorts of ways.
And it's best not to think about what happens if a car stops for any reason, or worse, catches fire. I do not believe any escape hatches were part of the demo and cost calculations.
What a gong show and waste of everyone's time. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1075230308545454080 How can this man honestly think this sort of system could be higher capacity than a subway?
I'm not sure what you're purporting to show other than two people disagreeing with each other, without providing evidence... Sure, an individual subway car has "more capacity," but does a subway system have more capacity? For example, I rarely see BART trains come within five minutes of each other. A tunnel that allows cars within 10 seconds of each other could provide more capacity than a tunnel with higher-density…
There is no universe where an SUV holding 4 people is more space efficient than a Skytrain car.
> "But Musk told reporters that Boring officials have abandoned the concept of the skate, saying it was “far more complex” than his new plan: guide wheels that can be attached to the front tires of autonomous, electric cars, steadying the vehicles as they move forward through tunnels." So basically this only works with Tesla vehicles at the moment. I'm wondering how that's going to expand in the future--if at all. Do…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it's best not to think about what happens if a car stops for any reason, or worse, catches fire. I do not believe any escape hatches were part of the demo and cost calculations.
Devil's advocate chiming in here... What happens if you're in an enclosed tube, like in say a commercial airliner, and it stops suddenly or catches fire?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, mentioned in live stream was that other co’s only spend 1/5 the time actually boring and the rest on logistics of putting up retaining walls and the like. Part of Boring Co innovation is to automate that and keep the borer working all the time. Also they 3x’d the energy output of the boring machine vs competitors. Should add up.
That's all still speculation, isn't it? IIRC this tunnel was built with a boring machine from a competitor.
Buying a competitors device is a really smart move as a first step, since much of the low hanging fruit gains are in the activities around the machine to save that 4/5s of time when it’s idle. As a startup it’s almost always best to bootstrap with the competition’s product if you can, makes rate of learning so much faster.