Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

Post by marvin » Thu, Aug 13, 2020, 11:47 AM UTC

qayxc wrote: post #234

manigandham wrote: post #136

The vac-train concept is from 1799. Maglev tech is decades in production. I remember a Discovery Channel show 20 years ago about trains traveling 5000mph through tunnels at the bottom of the ocean to cross continents in an hour. Hyperloop is fantastical renaming of old tech without solving any of the fundamental problems of economy, geography, energy and politics. We're capable of building incredible projects if only…

Please remind me again how a company with a market share of 0.6% [1] is changing global transportation? It's fascinating to me how people seem to vastly underestimate the actual volume of the global car market while overestimating the impact of unicorns. In order to even make a dent in the global market, getting into the double digits would be required. Even in the market "dominated" by Tesla (e.g. plug-in EVs), thei…

Post by aaron695 » Thu, Aug 13, 2020, 12:06 PM UTC

bildung wrote: post #235

aaron695 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire point of the Hyperloop is to get around right of way and politics. That is it's design. That is exactly what Elon is doing. You might argue it can't do what it's setting out to achieve, but this has never been a technological solution. He's designed a technology to fit with current societal processes rather than the old, get society to accept a technology.

But right of way extends underground in the US - literally "all the way to hell"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuius_est_solum,_eius_est_usqu... How is this something that can be solved with the yet to be invented new TBM?

Post by kwhitefoot » Thu, Aug 13, 2020, 12:11 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #18

AlexandrB wrote: post #9

This is evergreen when talking about Hyperloop: http://www.cat-bus.com/2017/12/gadgetbahn/ The problems with building this have nothing to do with technology but with right-of-way, investment, and politics. If those factors were solved, we'd already have high-speed rail in places where Hyperloop has been proposed. The fact that we don't says that Hyperloop is unlikely to be feasible as well.

Which is why the first Hyperloop will probably be built outside the USA. Melbourne to Sydney always seemed like a good choice to me. It's one of the busiest air routes in the world[1], there is obviously tons of solar, lots of open land beside the existing road, no seismic activity to speak of and it's a good long distance to get up to speed (~1000km). [1] (actually #3 in the world by number of passengers) https://en…

Post by captainbland » Thu, Aug 13, 2020, 12:14 PM UTC

johnwalkr wrote: post #246

sudosysgen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thing, is that anyone that punches a hole big enough in the tube basically transforms half of the hyperloop into a bomb. Energy = pressure * volume. That's a lot of energy smashing through a hyperloop capsule. Basically, imagine if 3% of the tube was filled with pipe bombs, but in reverse.

The tube would need egress points, interfaces to stations. I think the difficulty of building one tube between stations is like building a 100km long airplane fuselage. But any proposal is little more than "'just' build a tube!"

Post by specialist » Thu, Aug 13, 2020, 12:41 PM UTC

owenversteeg wrote: post #47

AlexandrB wrote: post #9

This is evergreen when talking about Hyperloop: http://www.cat-bus.com/2017/12/gadgetbahn/ The problems with building this have nothing to do with technology but with right-of-way, investment, and politics. If those factors were solved, we'd already have high-speed rail in places where Hyperloop has been proposed. The fact that we don't says that Hyperloop is unlikely to be feasible as well.

That "Gadgetbahn" article is great, but I do have one criticism. From the article: "If the idea is viable and the people behind it are competent, it should have attracted private investment, as there should be a potential to make profit selling the technology. After all, the proposal has been around for 23 years." High speed rail on a large scale is really something that has to come from the government. While there a…