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The Boring Company [video]

boringcompany.com

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Re: The Boring Company [video]

#21

Post by wahern »

sxates wrote: post #15

It seems crazy, but there's also some appeal in the idea of opting out of all the legacy infrastructure. If we could rebuild our roads from scratch today to serve a vehicle for the 21st century, what would we build? Probably something like this - standardized vehicles on automated roadways with built in electric connections that enable unlimited long-distance high-speed travel (though we'd just build this into cars i…

Hyperloop would seem even _more_ plausible if we were able to lower the cost of tunnel construction. Likewise, traditional mass transit and other infrastructure (power, telecom, sewage) could be significantly cheaper with improved tunneling technology.

If Elon Musk wants to spend--or convince others to spend--billions of dollars innovating tunneling construction, then I'll enthusiastically support whatever vision motivates him.

It's like if a kid decides to clean his room so the aliens can land their spacecraft, then by all means, let's get ready for the aliens!

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#22

Post by hourislate »

dmix wrote: post #19

Toronto really needs this. We have a raised express way that's right in front of our harbourfront and it makes the whole area noisy and ugly, blocking what should be a great view towards (great) Lake Ontario. Most importantly it takes up a ton of very valuable real estate. A huge amount of condo development has been done right next to it and having lived in one the noise is a real problem. Living on the south-end of…

Toronto is one of the most dysfunctional cities in NA. They can't even add a new subway line or additional stops. They have no problem closing down every major high way in the City for a marathon every weekend during the summer or the Molson Indy causing massive traffic issues.

The City Council is inept so good luck hoping they could ever have the insight to agree to something like this. , so I really doubt they will ever be capable of implementing a solution to the traffic congestion, noise, etc.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#24

Post by stcredzero »

jrockway wrote: post #12
AlexandrB wrote: post #2

I don't get it. Much of the USA is faced with crumbling infrastructure and a lack of money for maintaining that infrastructure. How is creating a network of powered tunnels - which are much more expensive to maintain than surface roads - going to interact with this economic reality? This seems like technology that addresses mostly fun, theoretical problems - like traffic optimization, not ugly, practical ones like ti…

I am not sure the poor state of existing infrastructure precludes someone from building their own new infrastructure. Public transportation outside of the US is often run by private companies, and they make plenty of money. Even in the US, passenger rail is typically run by the government or government-like bodies, while freight rail is just private companies. I don't think there's an intrinsic reason for that, it's…

I am not sure the poor state of existing infrastructure precludes someone from building their own new infrastructure. Public transportation outside of the US is often run by private companies, and they make plenty of money.

It would be relatively easy (which is to say, it would be easier than doing it to private cars) to fit the municipal bus fleet with the equipment to also become automatically piloted "packets." For that matter, it would also be possible to bake-in such functionality to Tesla cars.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#25

Post by [deleted] »

devopsproject wrote: post #13
Mattasher wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. They might want to have included that in the video if they were suggesting this as an actual project and not a toy vision.

This is a mock up. Do you seriously think they forgot to ask the question "what about the giant hole in the ground"? lol

[deleted]

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#26

Post by rhino369 »

AlexandrB wrote: post #2

I don't get it. Much of the USA is faced with crumbling infrastructure and a lack of money for maintaining that infrastructure. How is creating a network of powered tunnels - which are much more expensive to maintain than surface roads - going to interact with this economic reality? This seems like technology that addresses mostly fun, theoretical problems - like traffic optimization, not ugly, practical ones like ti…

The easy solution is using private project finance instead of public funds.

But I seriously doubt this thing is actually cost efficient.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#28

Post by mandeepj »

Whenever I am stuck in traffic, I am thinking about how can we have no traffic jams at all. My idea is similar to this but not in tunnels. I think we can do it on earth. Just have an elevated freeway that is reserved for this type of traffic where road is like a conveyor belt. I hope you got the idea.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#29

Post by jameshart »

Mattasher wrote: post #4

Giant hole opens up in street with no gate around it. Have they actually spent time thinking about this or is this a joke?

then the vehicle on a tray is accelerated up to high speed inside a tunnel without its axles or body being secured onto the carrier.

Then a vast network of these tunnels is somehow posited.

I don't think reality was one of the constraints applied to this concept.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#30

Post by TillE »

andrewem wrote: post #20

I have to give Elon Musk credit - the average person would be hard-pressed to come up with even a single laughably impractical mode of transportation, but he's got two.

Hyperloop looks insanely good in comparison. Like ideally it's just an upgrade on trains. This is some bizarre daydream.
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