Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

"A hyperloop system involves passengers or freight transported by pods elevated by magnets, which travel within raised pipes. The pods can be propelled at 620mph (1,000kph), says Jay Walder, boss of Virgin Hyperloop One, one of the firms pushing the idea. At that pace 'you could move between Columbus and Chicago in 40 minutes', he says, so covering the 460 miles many hours quicker than by driving and at a cost (and overall carbon impact) that he says would be lower than flying."

If the economics work, for both people and goods, and if the environmental externalities are lower than cars/trucks/trains/planes, then it would be great to have regional networks of hyperloops in the US. I say, bring it on!

Re: Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

#5

Post by jeffreyrogers » Wed, Aug 12, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

Hyperloop has sex appeal, but it seems like Maglev or just plain old high speed rail makes more sense from an economics perspective. I can't imagine it's cheap to keep a tube evacuated. Either way, it seems good to try and build these sort of high-tech industries in the US.

Re: Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

#6

Post by smikhanov » Wed, Aug 12, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

3.5 years on my prediction holds well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13811365

Re: Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

#7

Post by auganov » Wed, Aug 12, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

Read it as Pipes of Fantasy.

Years ago I remember reading about miles long test tracks being built. I haven't been following developments surrounding this at all, but as far as I can tell there are still no serious test tracks, why?

The ones that are out there are supposedly too short to get to full speed (or anywhere close to it!).

Given the hype surrounding it I have a hard time believing money is the limiting factor here. Sounds to me like the tech just isn't there and won't be anytime soon. And having a full test track would simply kill the deal flow.

EDIT: so just to make sure I'm not misremembering anything, here's a story from 2015 https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9873014/hyperloop-technol...

"The near-term goal is to construct a 3-kilometer test track to conduct a full-speed prototype."

And it appears to me that what was supposed to be this 3km test track is a 500m Virgin Hyperloop test track today at the same location with some of the same people involved. So they might have land secured for the original length already.

"That startup has plans to build an 8-kilometer in Quay Valley"

"he expects to conduct the first test with live passengers in 32 months"

Re: Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

#8

Post by the8472 » Wed, Aug 12, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #5

Hyperloop has sex appeal, but it seems like Maglev or just plain old high speed rail makes more sense from an economics perspective. I can't imagine it's cheap to keep a tube evacuated. Either way, it seems good to try and build these sort of high-tech industries in the US.

The speed is supposed to be even higher than maglev, so it can compete with planes over longer distances. But yes, any kind of high speed public transport would be great.

Re: Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

#9

Post by AlexandrB » Wed, Aug 12, 2020, 9:55 PM UTC

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.

Re: Hyperloop: Pipes of Fancy

#10

Post by TylerE » Wed, Aug 12, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #5

Hyperloop has sex appeal, but it seems like Maglev or just plain old high speed rail makes more sense from an economics perspective. I can't imagine it's cheap to keep a tube evacuated. Either way, it seems good to try and build these sort of high-tech industries in the US.

It doesn't have to be that good a vacuum. It's probably really no more expensive than conventional high speed rail.

The hyperloop proposal is operating at approximately 1 millibar of pressure. That sounds CLOSE to a vacuum..and it is, roughly 0.01 atm, but with vacuums getting down to around there is easy. Getting down to, say, 0.00001 atm is much much much harder.