31–40 of 322 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon seems to have moved on to non-vaccuum underground tunnels via The Boring Company, which is actually doing real projects. Though apparently there are still Hyperloop competitions planned. The 2020 one was supposed to be "in a 10km vacuum tunnel with a curve", though that may be stalled by, well, obvious current events. https://tunnelinsider.com/the-2020-hyperloop-competition-wil... No one else seems to have quite…
> Elon seems to have moved on to non-vaccuum underground tunnels via The Boring Company So, a subway?
Did you know that LIGO designers had to add earthen berms to protect their vacuum pipes from bullets? Not to mention the throughput issues, the energy budget, the cost of construction, the right-of-way issues... Let's be frank: Hyperloop is dumb, and people who are spending money on it are too. You have better things to do with your time than analyzing it or defending it, and so do I.
No, that's hilarious, where can I read more?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. > She says the pipes could come up on state-owned land beside motorways or (where they exist) railways. No time or planning should go into surface hyperloops. These things belong underground. 100x better.
Say what? That’s crazy talk. Underground would be many times more expensive, and has much worse failure modes. What happens if the train loses power?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really, there’s a fourth factor not listed here, which is government vs. private. A government project will, for political reasons, need to support universal access, and a public transit system will have a hard time telling a person “you smell too bad to get on the bus.” A private company won’t have any such problems and can build only for the rich and middle class. The problem that Hyperloop solves is creating 1…
Why is hyperloop 1/20th the cost? It seems like the expensive parts of high-speed rail (acquiring the land and moving earth to make a long straight path) would also apply.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon seems to have moved on to non-vaccuum underground tunnels via The Boring Company, which is actually doing real projects. Though apparently there are still Hyperloop competitions planned. The 2020 one was supposed to be "in a 10km vacuum tunnel with a curve", though that may be stalled by, well, obvious current events. https://tunnelinsider.com/the-2020-hyperloop-competition-wil... No one else seems to have quite…
> Elon seems to have moved on to non-vaccuum underground tunnels via The Boring Company So, a subway?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. > She says the pipes could come up on state-owned land beside motorways or (where they exist) railways. No time or planning should go into surface hyperloops. These things belong underground. 100x better.
Say what? That’s crazy talk. Underground would be many times more expensive, and has much worse failure modes. What happens if the train loses power?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. > She says the pipes could come up on state-owned land beside motorways or (where they exist) railways. No time or planning should go into surface hyperloops. These things belong underground. 100x better.
Say what? That’s crazy talk. Underground would be many times more expensive, and has much worse failure modes. What happens if the train loses power?
I'm just extrapolating from trends and some cherrypicking. The ongoing elevated rail project in Hawai'i is now running at $500M per mile. Boring Company projects they can get cost of tunneling down to $10M per mile.
What I forecast (without much data, so please correct me if I'm wrong) is that with more money going to tunnels, we will see the costs continue to drop. You don't have the quasi-extortion that goes on now over land rights above ground.
Tunnels also scale better long term—you can just keep adding tunnels.
But beyond cost and scale tunnels are just so much nicer. You can replace ugly, polluting above ground infra with parks and greenery. Even though the Big Dig in Boston took forever and went way over costs, the city is so much nicer now without the Central Artery.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon seems to have moved on to non-vaccuum underground tunnels via The Boring Company, which is actually doing real projects. Though apparently there are still Hyperloop competitions planned. The 2020 one was supposed to be "in a 10km vacuum tunnel with a curve", though that may be stalled by, well, obvious current events. https://tunnelinsider.com/the-2020-hyperloop-competition-wil... No one else seems to have quite…
> Elon seems to have moved on to non-vaccuum underground tunnels via The Boring Company So, a subway?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Say what? That’s crazy talk. Underground would be many times more expensive, and has much worse failure modes. What happens if the train loses power?
They'll be stuck in a tunnel. Is that worse than being stuck in the desert?
If you're above ground you'd just pop an emergency hatch in the tube.
You can't do that underground.
I'd also point out that a hyperloop tunnel is a much worse place to be stuck in than a normal tunnel.
In a normal tunnel there is room to walk alongside the tracks.
In a hyperloop tunnel there is virtually no room between the car and tunnel - maybe an inch or two, tops.