Robert Goddard designed a vacuum train in the 1910s, why did Elon think it was going to work a century later?
Because the tech had advanced in 110 years?
Apparently not, I suppose is your point.
Hyperloop One to shut down
11–20 of 490 posts
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#12There is a world where we dig tunnels under federal highways, and stick freight trucks down there. They'd run on a monorail, at 120+ mph. Surface vehicles would be dramatically limited in terms of height, width, and length. Maybe people buses could go down there?
In my imagination these tunnels are, like, 200' down. Like mole people.
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#13There is technology for fast rapid mass transit: high-speed rail. Technology was never the issue here. Political will to fund, approve right-of-way, and build it was always the problem, and Musk never even tried to address that part.
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#14It served its purpose of diverting attention (and so funding) from high speed rail, which is a threat to his business of selling cars. https://twitter.com/parismarx/status/1571628269555826688?lan...
The biggest threat to CA high speed trail is CA high speed rail
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#15It served its purpose of diverting attention (and so funding) from high speed rail, which is a threat to his business of selling cars. https://twitter.com/parismarx/status/1571628269555826688?lan...
So this is a journalist quoting their own tweet which links to an article that quotes them attributing something to Musk’s biographer. Issaacson? The book is out, can’t we just see the actual primary source now?
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#16Robert Goddard designed a vacuum train in the 1910s, why did Elon think it was going to work a century later?
Because the arrogance of modern Silicon Valley thinking is that "We are better, in every possible way, than older engineers, because we know code." And Elon Musk seems very, very prone to this sort of thinking (or, at least, his companies do, and I think it comes from him).
One example of many is the weird conversations he was having about sonic velocity robots and "lights out dreadnaught" sort of auto factories, which just about every other automaker has been trying on and off since the 80s, and has worked out that it doesn't work. So Tesla's modern lines, after quite a bit of fooling around with that sort of rubbish, look just like everyone else's lines, because as soon as you have humans in the loop for the things robots can't do well, you may as well run the line at human speeds.
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#17There is technology for fast rapid mass transit: high-speed rail. Technology was never the issue here. Political will to fund, approve right-of-way, and build it was always the problem, and Musk never even tried to address that part.
When folks suggest a new "changes everything" way to go fast, always remember that we used to run NY to Chicago at 120 MPH on steam power and bolted rails.
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#18It served its purpose of diverting attention (and so funding) from high speed rail, which is a threat to his business of selling cars. https://twitter.com/parismarx/status/1571628269555826688?lan...
> which is a threat to his business of selling cars
With 40,000kms of high speed rail [1] (by far the most in the world), China must then have very few electric vehicles.
In reality they are the world leader. [2]
[1] https://www.statista.com/topics/7534/high-speed-rail-in-chin...
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-17/how-china...
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#19It served its purpose of diverting attention (and so funding) from high speed rail, which is a threat to his business of selling cars. https://twitter.com/parismarx/status/1571628269555826688?lan...
The biggest threat to CA high speed trail is CA high speed rail
The entire country can be characterized by this quote.
What's the biggest threat to the USA?
Re: Hyperloop One to shut down
#20It served its purpose of diverting attention (and so funding) from high speed rail, which is a threat to his business of selling cars. https://twitter.com/parismarx/status/1571628269555826688?lan...
CA HSR is going to spend $8b to connect 4th and King to the Transbay Terminal. That's 2 miles. At $4b/mi, the problem would be too much attention not too little
https://sfstandard.com/2023/10/27/san-francisco-downtown-rai...