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The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

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Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#281

Post by DuskStar »

jcranmer wrote: post #185
skywhopper wrote: post #162

The math on this is highly questionable: The contract posted on the LVCVA website projects an operating capacity of 4,400 passengers per hour using “autonomous electric vehicles at high speeds,” which might include a Tesla Model X or Model 3, or another Tesla chassis converted into a 16-passenger shuttle. There are two tunnels involved, so to manage to get 2,200 passengers through in one direction per hour, you're go…

Put another way: if you assume 16-passenger shuttles, you have to have 26 second headways between cars in order to meet capacity. If you don't split the track to allow unloading, you have 26 seconds to disembark 16 passengers, embark 16 more passengers, and then clear the platform in enough time to allow sufficient safety margin for the car immediately behind you. Station dwell times (essentially the time from train…

If they have to have multiple platforms at each station anyways, it might make sense to essentially have three lines - AB, BC and AC, instead of ABC - and only run direct. At least in that situation everyone would be getting off at each stop, which could simplify some things - and it naturally splits passengers into two platforms.

That sort of routing is also significantly improved by having smaller, independent vehicles (well, once the number of stops goes up) - sort of like the Personal Rapid Transit setup at WVU. [0]

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown_Personal_Rapid_Tran...

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#282

Post by embwbam »

indigochill wrote: post #270
embwbam wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it looks pretty hopeless sometimes, and I definitely appreciate what Musk and Gates are doing. I’d highly recommend reading “Winners Take All”, as it completely flipped my opinion on this subject. The author argues that giving up and trusting rich philanthropists to fix things further undermines our faith in the political system, requiring us to give billionaires even more power. And it distracts us from the…

Although I appreciate the sentiment, I actually think this is impossible. Some people are going to be inherently extremely ambitious. Those people will compete/cooperate and somebody's going to come out on top. Supposing you establish a system explicitly designed to stop this from happening, you need someone to enforce that system. Congratulations, you just created a role for the ambitious people to fight over.

There will always be people in power. But maybe it is better if those people are elected, and operate in view of the public

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#283

Post by kilroy123 »

spraak wrote: post #95
calgoo wrote: post #67

I love watching all of Musk's projects, as every single one can be connected to Mars colonization. 1. Electric cars for transport, Check. 2. Solar panels and batteries for power generation and storage, check. 3. Tunnel digging equipment for making underground bases and transport, check. 4. Satellite communications for an entire planet, check. 5. Then finally, the actual rockets to get us there. Hopefully he will cont…

The goal of Mars to me is silly. Mars is already worse off in terms of climate than Earth. Why not work to improve what we have? The only appeal I see is "uncharted territory" / wild west

I disagree. The technology that will come out of doing so will drastically improve life here on Earth. (Could potentially at least)

Just going to the Moon and living in low orbit has resulted in a ton of new technology.

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#284

Post by serf »

embwbam wrote: post #202
bongobongo wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes, dude. I'm sorry, but Elon Musk is just a guy with money. He's not a demigod. He's not a genius. He's not even a captain of industry. He's just a rich guy playing with money and and building a personal brand. I'm not saying that he doesn't have ideas, and that some of those ideas aren't the totally self-serving delusions of a rich dickhead, but a good many of them are, and I certainly don't want any part of "th…

I'd like to live in a world where rich dickheads act more like Musk and do cool things. It's like living in a comic book. It's fun. But that's not our way forward. Forget the billionaires, we need to assemble, reinvest in our political system, and start building a better future from the ground up.

> I'd like to live in a world where rich dickheads act more like Musk and do cool things. It's like living in a comic book. It's fun.

Not to nitpick, but if you were to go by the typical comic-book example most 'rich dickheads' end up being super-villains.

If the question is : Do I want the immensely rich to start moving the world around from under my feet with their unlimited resources in order to do 'Cool Things'?

A: No, I don't. 'Cool Things' is too loosely constrained a parameter to allow trillions of dollars to flow into unchecked. What happens when some ultra-rich individuals definitions of Cool Things involves morally unethical behavior?

Do I like Musks' ideas and plans?

A: Yes.

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#285

Post by serf »

qaq wrote: post #212
bongobongo wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes, dude. I'm sorry, but Elon Musk is just a guy with money. He's not a demigod. He's not a genius. He's not even a captain of industry. He's just a rich guy playing with money and and building a personal brand. I'm not saying that he doesn't have ideas, and that some of those ideas aren't the totally self-serving delusions of a rich dickhead, but a good many of them are, and I certainly don't want any part of "th…

"He's not a genius" thats pretty debatable statement he has very deep technical expertise in a number of fields that alone can easily qualify him as genius.

>"He's not a genius" thats pretty debatable statement

Sure, it's debatable, but 'genius' is a non-standardized poorly defined opinion, anyway.

I don't care if he's a genius or he isn't. He's done very well for himself, and that's praiseworthy by itself without needing arbitrary titles stacked onto it.

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#286

Post by DanBC »

dang wrote: post #17

The submitted title was "No, the Las Vegas 'Loop' Is Not the Future of Public Transportation". That broke the HN guidelines, which ask submitters to use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait, and not to editorialize. We remove submission privileges from accounts who post like this, so please don't. Note: if this was the article's original title and, as sometimes happens, they changed it, then none o…

The BBC does it a lot too.

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#287

Post by dragonwriter »

serf wrote: post #285
qaq wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"He's not a genius" thats pretty debatable statement he has very deep technical expertise in a number of fields that alone can easily qualify him as genius.

>"He's not a genius" thats pretty debatable statement Sure, it's debatable, but 'genius' is a non-standardized poorly defined opinion, anyway. I don't care if he's a genius or he isn't. He's done very well for himself, and that's praiseworthy by itself without needing arbitrary titles stacked onto it.

> He's done very well for himself, and that's praiseworthy

Eh. Doing well for others is praiseworthy. Doing well for yourself is it's own reward, and neither deserves nor needs praise.

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#288

Post by ekianjo »

calgoo wrote: post #67

I love watching all of Musk's projects, as every single one can be connected to Mars colonization. 1. Electric cars for transport, Check. 2. Solar panels and batteries for power generation and storage, check. 3. Tunnel digging equipment for making underground bases and transport, check. 4. Satellite communications for an entire planet, check. 5. Then finally, the actual rockets to get us there. Hopefully he will cont…

The big missing part is facilities to enable sustained life on other planets such as Mars. We still pretty much have no clue how to engineer it right, and it does not seem that Musk or any of its ventures is working on it.

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#289

Post by ekianjo »

spraak wrote: post #95
calgoo wrote: post #67

I love watching all of Musk's projects, as every single one can be connected to Mars colonization. 1. Electric cars for transport, Check. 2. Solar panels and batteries for power generation and storage, check. 3. Tunnel digging equipment for making underground bases and transport, check. 4. Satellite communications for an entire planet, check. 5. Then finally, the actual rockets to get us there. Hopefully he will cont…

The goal of Mars to me is silly. Mars is already worse off in terms of climate than Earth. Why not work to improve what we have? The only appeal I see is "uncharted territory" / wild west

Going to the New World was also silly for Europeans at the time. Everything was going to be more dangerous, more risky and life threatening. But pushing ourselves to go beyond risk is what makes humans progress in the long run. Going to another planet is a huge, difficult step forward. By all means everyone who goes there will be worse off, but think beyond their existence, 300 years in the future. It may become a pretty nice colony once we figure things out.

Re: The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas

#290

Post by [deleted] »

edmundsauto wrote: post #278
idlewords wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, what's an innovation that came out of the moon program or the LHC that has broader social benefit?

Quite a few things, to name a few: * improved firefighting protective gear * Athletic shoes * Sports stadiums being able to move the field of play * seismological monitors for everything from trains to trucks * base defibrillator tech * cordless power tools * skin care: "Estee Lauder uses digital image analyzers and software based on NASA lunar research to evaluate cosmetic products." [0] https://www.nasa.gov/sites/d…

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