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The Boring Company [video]

boringcompany.com

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Re: The Boring Company [video]

#241

Post by sanswork »

MattRix wrote: post #225
sanswork wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toronto has enough space that LRT makes way more sense financially than subways but Ford ruined LRT in the minds of almost everyone. Even GO could cut down a lot of traffic if they'd just add more parking lots on the edge of the city and make it all day two way. When I use to live north of the city there were 3 trains into Toronto in the morning on the Stouffville line and 3 trains back at the end of the day and if y…

GO Transit has done exactly what you said over the past few years, they've been adding way more trains and way more parking lots.

Yeah, they added like Mount Joy and Linconville on the Stouffville line. I think they are almost ready for two-way service on that line as well. Then all they need to do is figure out how to do it for less than $20/day.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#242

Post by ggoss »

My bet: it's all about the lithium. The Gigafactory (located near a large domestic lithium cache) will soon consume a large fraction of the world's lithium output, and currently, Tesla is completely dependent on other companies to mine it.

My question: will the debris Musk will need to transport away from the next "beta-test" city happen to contain large quantities of lithium? Or will his current suppliers have a new source of (too-good-to-refuse) industrial machinery?

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#243

Post by hk__2 »

bb88 wrote: post #188
pnathan wrote: post #85

This is very, very wasteful compared to actual mass transit. A subway network is much more effective at delivering people. If he's looking for mega-good, Musk would do significantly better to drop a full subway network. edit: tunnelling is a broadly solved problem. It's difficult, expensive, slow, etc. But there's no engineering reason why a hole in the ground can't happen. Musk might be able to drive some significan…

>Musk would do significantly better to drop a full subway network. In the same way a road offers private and public transportation, a tunnel can do both. Why can't the car be a bus, say?

Because that’s hugely inefficient compared to a subway network.

I live in Paris, France. 100% of its inhabitants have at least one of the 300+ subway stations under 1 km (0.6 miles) of their home. The subway system transports 5M people every single day. That’s twice the city population. That’s also 1.9B per year. During the peak hours you can have up to one train every 90 seconds for a capacity of 700 people each.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#244

Post by gizmo385 »

rhino369 wrote: post #26
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.

I feel as though a large scale privatization of roads would see an explosion in toll roads, which I don't believe is a sustainable solution to infrastructure problems.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#245

Post by pnathan »

ShannonAlther wrote: post #184
pnathan wrote: post #85

This is very, very wasteful compared to actual mass transit. A subway network is much more effective at delivering people. If he's looking for mega-good, Musk would do significantly better to drop a full subway network. edit: tunnelling is a broadly solved problem. It's difficult, expensive, slow, etc. But there's no engineering reason why a hole in the ground can't happen. Musk might be able to drive some significan…

> But there's no engineering reason why a hole in the ground can't happen. Depending on the specific location, there may very well be. Underground tunnels are vulnerable to earthquake-inflicted damage, for instance, and you would want to avoid repair as much as possible. Similarly, there may be environmental or conservatory reasons not to build tunnels, or reasons related to cost, or obstacles not yet encountered (th…

broadly, a generic hole is doable, it's been done many places.

just like software is doable. :)

sometimes you can't do it. but generally... you can. :)

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#248

Post by edko »

ziikutv wrote: post #234

Here's a question for those way smarter than me. Why is there a need for a platform? Some pros: - If its a shitty, poor regulated car.. this will lead to more safety - Avoid adding extra gear (software/hardware) to the car Cons: - Size restriction - Clean up and Maintenance - How do you ensure the car is in the platform securely?

Also: according to the video, entry is quite free. How will they prevent some terrorist asshole from causing major damage with a car full of explosives?

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#249

Post by bhhaskin »

tinym wrote: post #134
tuacker wrote: post #117

I feel like everything Elon Musk undertakes with his companies is just one huge Mars Beta Test. - SpaceX: Obvious, got to get to space somehow - Tesla: Build cars/machines to run on something that is guaranteed to exist on Mars (the sun) vs. Oil - Gigafactory: How to build batteries 101 - Solar roof: While Earths environment may not be as harsh as Mars you still learn something, and improve solar panel production in…

By the time we've learned how to live on a planet as inhospitable as Mars, maybe we'll know how to make a home on Earth.

We know how to live on another planet like Mars. The issue is getting there, and getting there at scale.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#250

Post by ChuckMcM »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #238
tuacker wrote: post #117

I feel like everything Elon Musk undertakes with his companies is just one huge Mars Beta Test. - SpaceX: Obvious, got to get to space somehow - Tesla: Build cars/machines to run on something that is guaranteed to exist on Mars (the sun) vs. Oil - Gigafactory: How to build batteries 101 - Solar roof: While Earths environment may not be as harsh as Mars you still learn something, and improve solar panel production in…

The thing to do is to check for what is potentially inconsistent with your hypothesis. For example, what about the neural link company?

That is totally how you are going to fly his rockets :-) So much easier if you just put on a helmet and now you can use your thoughts to control the switches and inputs.
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