Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Regent – Electric coastal travel

regentcraft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 333 posts

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#271

Post by apozem »

skrebbel wrote: post #213
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a perennial favorite of transportation NIMBYs. Where I live extending the light rail the last little bit over the river to Washington state is a no brainer, but it's been paralyzed by decades of opposition from suburbanites in Vancouver Wa. My friend's dad is/was one of the key activists. He'd stand in planning meetings and no joke scream about how "criminals" were gonna ride the train up, break into someone'…

I don’t completely follow, this is people living in a Portland suburb lobbying against getting a public transport connection? How is less infrastructure better?

A lot of the time it's a race issue. I live near Atlanta, where white suburbanites have spent 40 years voting to cripple public transportation, because they're afraid black people will use it to come to their neighborhood.

That is not an exaggeration. One of my coworkers did a historical study and read town hall transcripts from the last couple decades. People were extremely clear why they were voting down mass transit.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#272

Post by yafbum »

It says it will go up to 180 mph... am wondering how the ride feels at that speed. Open water areas can be a pretty turbulent place in terms of wind, and I imagine that flying so fast and so low would feel a bit scary when the wind swings you around

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#273

Post by skrebbel »

molsongolden wrote: post #219
skrebbel wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t completely follow, this is people living in a Portland suburb lobbying against getting a public transport connection? How is less infrastructure better?

This isn’t uncommon in suburbs. Some people care more about preventing easy access to their community than they do about having easy access to other communities.

Every time when I think I kinda sorta figured out American culture, I read a comment like this. To me this is batshit insane. I’m so happy my suburb has regular bus and train service!

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#274

Post by yafbum »

beefield wrote: post #215
yard2010 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree it's nonsense, I'm curious what would change without harming the personal security of everyone involved? I mean this system has many flaws but no one can steal a plane again and crash it into innocent people right?

As someone who carries a 20 cm metal rod through airport security every time and has not seen a single warning light ever popping up because of that, it is quite difficult for me to understand how the airport security is supposed to add safety against anyone who is willing to spend any time working around it - and who is motivated. (For the curious, there is a titanium plate in my body due to an accident)

I'm quite sure that if you carried the same in luggage or on your body (as opposed to _in_ your body), it would get confiscated.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#275

Post by Meegul »

wthalheimer wrote: post #52

Hey guys - Billy Thalheimer, Co-founder and CEO of REGENT here. A friend reached out to say this is blowing up - so cool! (Thank you beefman lol) Here to answer any questions

Hey Billy, very small nitpick on your site: The "Mission Sets" nav button is broken on the Viceroy page, and it looks like it's just down to the href missing the correct target (# instead of #mission-sets).

Tiny bug aside, I hope you find success in this venture. I'm sure there'll be a lot of naysayers, but I find it inspiring that someone is actually trying to do something in the sustainable air travel space with technology we have today rather than putting all of their eggs in the basket of yet to be seen technology.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#276

Post by yafbum »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #212
yard2010 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree it's nonsense, I'm curious what would change without harming the personal security of everyone involved? I mean this system has many flaws but no one can steal a plane again and crash it into innocent people right?

Modern airport security is beyond useless. It's hugely wasteful and ineffective. https://www.vox.com/2016/5/17/11687014/tsa-against-airport-s...

In the past quarter, TSA intercepted an average of 16.8 firearms per day, 93% of which were loaded. I'm quite happy with that many less guns on my flights (imagine what it would be like if there was no check - this is just from people who forgot that carrying onboard is not allowed).

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#277

Post by lesuorac »

wthalheimer wrote: post #248
gaadd33 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acela in the NE Corridor exists as does Virgin Trains (post COVID it's operated under the name Brightline) from Miami to Orlando. Only 2 of the 4 you listed haven't come to fruition.

Acela and Virgin Trains are not high speed rail…

To complement this, the Acela has a top speed of 150 mph; it can only travel that fast for ~10% of the distance between Boston and DC though [1]. It fastest leg from NYC to DC averages 82mph (about as fast as driving on 95 at night ;) )

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela#:~:text=Acela%20trains%2...

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#278

Post by tauntz »

d0gsg0w00f wrote: post #263
tauntz wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This has side effects of petty larceny and shootings. All of the mall shootings are groups of these kids that have beef with each other. It's mostly harmless to shoppers but there's always a chance you could get caught in crossfire or become the target of a malicious youth prank. As an outsider (from an European country): I don't think train access is the cause here :O It's like saying "We should seed rain clouds b…

I agree that correlation is not causation but it's tough to ignore when you see the packs of kids walking to/from the train

You are not wrong and we are in agreement! :)

Trains bring more "these kinds of kids" to the mall vs private cars.

Nice weather brings more "these kinds of kids" to the mall as well (compared to stormy weather).

Now, where we do seem to disagree is the question of where the actual problem is. In my opinion, the problem is _not_ that kids are at the mall. The problem is that, apparently, these kids start to shoot each other while they're at the mall (!?! what the fuck)

Looking at _all_ the other countries that have nicer weather and / or better public transportation, we don't see kids shooting each other at malls. So I'd say that's a good indicator that the _actual problem_ can't be solved by restricting public transportation (or sunshine) but there has to be a different issue that needs to be tackled here..

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#279

Post by scythe »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #264
wthalheimer wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With today's tech you're spot on. As batteries advance though, we expect ranges closer to 500 miles by the end of the decade, which would indeed enable SF LA!

3x increase in battery capacity in the next 7 years seems rather optimistic to me. Are there any specific battery advancements in the development pipeline that you know of? How are you managing battery degradation, especially given that you're planning for high charge rates with quick turnaround? Do you have an idea of how many pack replacements you'll need over the lifetime of the rest of the aircraft?

IIRC, a lot of the energy use in a plane flight is due to the initial acceleration. So double the capacity is more than double the distance. You can also just use a bigger battery when the weight efficiency is better.

Amprius is planning to offer a silicon nanowire anode sometime in the next decade it seems, which probably won't double the capacity, but it would be a significant improvement.

Post reply on HN