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Hyperloop

spacex.com

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Re: Hyperloop

#651

Post by j2d3 »

VladRussian2 wrote: post #522
9999 wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jerry Brown's political career is coming to an end, so there are no long term political consequences for him. He's also traditionally been an opponent of government waste. I don't think it's unreasonable to believe that he would choose an unproven but promising technology over our existing useless high speed rail project. The assembly is another matter. If you think hyperloop is interesting, write and call your state…

>He's also traditionally been an opponent of government waste. he is in bed with gov employees unions (the unions are primary driving force behind 200-300K/year gov employees pensions ( http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/pensions ) with retirement age of 55, CA is something like $200B deep in that hole), and especially with prison guard union - of course huge prison population resulting from "toughness on crime" may…

"especially with prison guard union - of course huge prison population resulting from "toughness on crime" may not be viewed as government waste by some" -

what if the prison guard union got in on the contract to have the prisoners build the hyperloop?

Re: Hyperloop

#652

Post by wikiburner »

gammarator wrote: post #646
robomartin wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between theory on a piece of paper the the reality of building something. In the real world unions will be all over a project like this. Up every crevice. So will environmental groups and other special interest groups. None of this is good for any major civil engineering project. I asked a question in my post. Can you name any new major civil engineering project in the US in the last fifty years?…

Can you name any new major civil engineering project in the US in the last fifty years? Boston's Big Dig ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_big_dig )?

I'm assuming you're being facetious. A picture of the big dig belongs in the dictionary under the word boondoggle, and proves robomartin's point better than almost any other example could.

Re: Hyperloop

#653

Post by vacri »

shirro wrote: post #611

Australia needs to build this between Sydney and Melbourne. Plenty of sunlight to power it. Not much risk of earthquakes. There is enough traffic to support it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_busiest_passenger_air_r...

The Victorian government won't even build new rail out to the airport; one wonders what would push them to want new rail all the way to Sydney.

Re: Hyperloop

#654

Post by jarek »

enraged_camel wrote: post #608
anko wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think tesla motors releasing an affordable car would benefit the world a lot more than the hyperloop. But it's nice that he is presenting the idea so the world can do their own analysis and even implement it before he has the chance.

>>I think tesla motors releasing an affordable car would benefit the world a lot more than the hyperloop. Specifically, an affordable Tesla car could benefit the entire world, whereas the Hyperloop would (at least initially) only benefit people living in LA and SF.

What are the benefits to the world market of an affordable Tesla compared to, say, a modernized version of the Volkswagen Lupo, or a plug-in Up! ?

Re: Hyperloop

#655

Post by tankbot »

Just finished reading the pdf and now I understand why this is by far the most popular HN post for a long time (ever?). I now post my feeble comment to be lost in a sea of enamored nerd buzz.

Fucking awesome, Elon.

Re: Hyperloop

#656

Post by aasarava »

robomartin wrote: post #630
revelation wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, can you not abuse this wonderful idea for a political forum on unions , of all things?

There's a difference between theory on a piece of paper the the reality of building something. In the real world unions will be all over a project like this. Up every crevice. So will environmental groups and other special interest groups. None of this is good for any major civil engineering project. I asked a question in my post. Can you name any new major civil engineering project in the US in the last fifty years?…

Can you name any new major civil engineering project in the US in the last fifty years?

New San Francisco Bay Bridge. (No, it's not a refurbish -- it's a completely separate bridge with a separate design to replace the existing Eastern span.)

Re: Hyperloop

#657

Post by damian2000 »

Originally I thought it was going to be inside a transparent tube that you could see out of - one of the only downsides to this is that you are inside a steel tube with no view. Technically not important, but may be important for some passengers.

Re: Hyperloop

#658

Post by damian2000 »

shirro wrote: post #611

Australia needs to build this between Sydney and Melbourne. Plenty of sunlight to power it. Not much risk of earthquakes. There is enough traffic to support it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_busiest_passenger_air_r...

Perth > Adelaide > Melbourne > Sydney > Brisbane would be better.

Not going to happen, but would be awesome if it did.

Re: Hyperloop

#659

Post by Bluestrike2 »

gammarator wrote: post #646
robomartin wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between theory on a piece of paper the the reality of building something. In the real world unions will be all over a project like this. Up every crevice. So will environmental groups and other special interest groups. None of this is good for any major civil engineering project. I asked a question in my post. Can you name any new major civil engineering project in the US in the last fifty years?…

Can you name any new major civil engineering project in the US in the last fifty years? Boston's Big Dig ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_big_dig )?

I can't think of a more apt example to support robomartin's original point. Regrettably.

Re: Hyperloop

#660

Post by jarek »

apendleton wrote: post #457
jessriedel wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be very surprised if the numbers really work out the way you claim: that the weight for carrying a passanger is similar for trains and a tube, and that the weight advantage of a tube comes essentially from 3x speed allowing for a one third the linear density of passengers. Do you have a cite?

No, this is just back-of-the envelope, admittedly. But the three factors that determine how many people you can move past a given point per unit of time are the frequency of the vehicles, the capacity of the vehicles, and the speed of the vehicles, so if you want to match the throughput of the proposed Hyperloop, but with rail traveling at 164mph, you have to either make the vehicles more frequent or higher-capacity,…

> But the three factors that determine how many people you can move past a given point per unit of time are the frequency of the vehicles, the capacity of the vehicles, and the speed of the vehicles

As a matter of fact, only the frequency and the capacity matter. Speed matters to passengers but not to the amount of people you can move.

The hyperloop as proposed actually has fairly low throughput; conventional rail systems, particularly of inter-metro variety where high throughput is most important, best it easily. 28 passengers per capsule at a capsule every 30 seconds makes 3360 pph during rush hours. RER line A averages 30000 passengers per hour over the entire year, with rush hour capacity being much higher.

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