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Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

businessinsider.com

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Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#31

Post by bluGill »

izzydata wrote: post #4

I find it quite surprising that they only fired half and not all of them. How can this conceptual vacuum tube pod system that has been shown to be incredibly inefficient and prohibitively expensive still have some kind of business model? To be honest I thought this whole idea got scrapped 5+ years ago.

They have got congress interested. It works just well enough to get them interested and funded. That it will always be prohibitively expensive is something they can hide.

Congress wants to fund the next big thing and make the US the best in the world. They don't want to hear that train technology is an almost completely solved problem and so we cannot get ahead of the rest of the world - the only thing left is buy and build the same thing as everyone else. Congress hates that idea.

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#32

Post by sslayer »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #18
izzydata wrote: post #4

I find it quite surprising that they only fired half and not all of them. How can this conceptual vacuum tube pod system that has been shown to be incredibly inefficient and prohibitively expensive still have some kind of business model? To be honest I thought this whole idea got scrapped 5+ years ago.

It's a bootstrap for Mars construction. Hence the undersized tunnels. Mass transit is just a cover story.

Underground habitats

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#33

Post by anchpop »

caycep wrote: post #21

Kind of OT, or maybe not. But why didn't Musk (or anyone else) go with Maglev tech? The efficiency seems ok, and it probably doesn't matter if you do it above vs below ground, and it's deployed around the world now.

Virgin Hyperloop uses maglev. The main difference between what they're doing and everyone else, is that they put their whole track in a giant airtight pipe, and pump air out of the pipe so the train can travel with less air resistance.

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#34

Post by brimble »

chucksta wrote: post #20
protomyth wrote: post #5

There are a lot of reasons standard rail in the US is cargo centric. Profit and a much easier customer service case are big ones. Also, sending cargo in a new transportation system is much easier and less lawsuit prone than people. An old story in the US since the post office basically made airplane travel viable via postal contracts.

Glossing over the fact that almost all the railways in the US are privately owned by cargo companies which prioritize their cargo over transport. Huge reason Amtrak struggles so much

I'd prefer Amtrak over aircraft for lots and lots of my travel, if not for this. Hell, I'd probably travel more total, too. Even if the price were the same as flying for a given destination.

The huge trip-duration and arrival-time uncertainty due to the shared rail, and having to defer to cargo trains, is what sinks it, for me. They can vary by large double digit percentages of the nominal time, at which point they're usually much slower than just driving.

I love how relaxing and comfortable they are and not having the security circus and dealing with crowded, distant-from-the-city airports, but not at nearly-air-travel prices and a 25-75% time premium over driving.

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#35

Post by bluGill »

7735835835 wrote: post #30
chucksta wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glossing over the fact that almost all the railways in the US are privately owned by cargo companies which prioritize their cargo over transport. Huge reason Amtrak struggles so much

There is presumably a reason they are cargo companies and not passager transport companies. Unless Amtrak has a government enforced monopoly?

Most cargo is going long distances that passengers should fly for. The needs of freight and passengers is different enough that they should almost never be on the same track.

When humans are on a train speed counts and they are willing to pay extra for it. When freight is on a train they can save money by going slower.

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#36

Post by jmyeet »

Vacuum travel in a a tube does actually make sense. It may not be viable (yet?) but the idea is sound.

A big problem is a breach in your vacuum. Keeping the atmosphere out is expensive.

But what if where you’re building it has no atmosphere and is geologically stable or dead? Then a lot of problems go away. You don’t even need a tunnel necessarily.

Yet another reason why colonizing the Moon makes 1000x more sense than the romantic pipe dream of the red planet.

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#37

Post by csee »

mimsee wrote: post #28
sneak wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vastly higher speeds is the reason it would be valuable if it can be made economically feasible.

I don’t think businesses care about speed but rather stability and throughput. If the vaccuum is broken how long does it take to get it fixed, the tube emptied of ”pods”, and so on.

Passengers care about speed.

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#38

Post by thomasahle »

caycep wrote: post #21

Kind of OT, or maybe not. But why didn't Musk (or anyone else) go with Maglev tech? The efficiency seems ok, and it probably doesn't matter if you do it above vs below ground, and it's deployed around the world now.

Not exciting enough to him if it already exists elsewhere.

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#39

Post by moffkalast »

ramphastidae wrote: post #27
fredley wrote: post #6

I still don't understand why there is any interest in this concept, either for freight or passenger transport, over a regular train.

Because the current passenger rail “system” in the US is horrendous.

So.. maglev?

Re: Hyperloop lays off half of its employees as it pivots away from passenger travel

#40

Post by mstipetic »

jmyeet wrote: post #36

Vacuum travel in a a tube does actually make sense. It may not be viable (yet?) but the idea is sound. A big problem is a breach in your vacuum. Keeping the atmosphere out is expensive. But what if where you’re building it has no atmosphere and is geologically stable or dead? Then a lot of problems go away. You don’t even need a tunnel necessarily. Yet another reason why colonizing the Moon makes 1000x more sense tha…

Colonizing the moon makes sense because you can easily build hyperloop on it?
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