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The Boring Company [video]

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Re: The Boring Company [video]

#321

Post by bb88 »

hk__2 wrote: post #243
bb88 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

> 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.

That's actually pretty awesome, but you may have noticed that Americans don't really care about efficiency.

Once the tunnel is built, you can put anything you want into it. But I suspect we would still choose cars over trains.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#322

Post by tptacek »

kgu wrote: post #302
tptacek wrote: post #151

Since this is a thread about Elon Musk, transportation infrastructure, public transportation, and urban design, and because HN has a sort of affinity for the Robert Moses story (The Power Broker was one of 'aaronsw's favorite books), this seems like a particularly on-point Twitter thread to read after the video: https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/858022699112824832 You might not agree with all/any of it but I…

I found the thread interesting and informative up until she drew her conclusion: Elon Musk doesn't strike me as an innovator when he talks about building tunnels and subways. He strikes me as Robert Moses. Who are these tunnels going to serve? The Latino communities in LA? Or are we just running them straight to the rich neighborhoods? It's hard for me to believe someone doesn't have an axe to grind when they make st…

Yeah, that's also not the conclusion I would draw, either. And that's fine: I don't have to agree with the whole thread to get value out of it.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#323

Post by placeybordeaux »

csomar wrote: post #254
placeybordeaux wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll have to look seriously at living underground on mars. It won't protect us from solar rays on the surface. One of the cheaper ways to protect yourself is to put a layer of rock inbetween you and the sun.

Is it possible to make a huge nuclear explosion/reaction that produces the same atmosphere we have on earth?

There are ways to teraform the planet, but they are well beyond our capabilities.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#324

Post by aylmao »

bhhaskin wrote: post #249
tinym wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Living there at scale is an issue too; the experiments ran here for a year in the desert require lots of training, careful planning and in general lots of time and resources. If we want to go to mars and stay there indefinitely we'll need bigger communities, which means manufacturing in mars, making the transition more seamless for a wider range of people, and in general just making more from less.

PS: Don't think this comment is down vote worthy, just healthy discussion imo.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#325

Post by phlakaton »

dyarosla wrote: post #297
bhhaskin wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I didn't downvote you, but I am genuinely curious where you got the idea that we know how to live on Mars already?

In theory, you just go there, plop down a habitat, and live in it.

In practice, it might be a little tougher than it sounds. :-)

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#326

Post by ceejayoz »

p0nce wrote: post #303
avn2109 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "(personal opinion: there are none coming)" Former tunnel boring engineer here. There is a ton of room for innovation around tunnel boring machines built by the major manufacturers (primarily Herrenknecht and Robbins), around reliability, durability, ease of serviceability etc. I cannot emphasize enough how modern TBM's require an unbelievable amount of engineering attention, repair labor, spare parts infrastructu…

Fantastic post, thanks. I have a naïve question about subterrean _housing_. With the real estate skyrocketing in some cities, and scarcity of terrain, I wonder why there is not much more underground liveable habitations (for example, near an expensive city center with no space left).

London is seeing a bit of this - people are building massive 3+ story basements under existing properties. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/24/business/going-underground-lon...

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#327

Post by flamedoge »

placeybordeaux wrote: post #155
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…

We'll have to look seriously at living underground on mars. It won't protect us from solar rays on the surface. One of the cheaper ways to protect yourself is to put a layer of rock inbetween you and the sun.

how to become ant people

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#328

Post by namlem »

andrewprock wrote: post #78
loufe wrote: post #52

The costs of tunneling are like FAR more expensive than most think. Breaking, excavating, and supporting rock is slow, time and cost heavy, and precarious work. While this is an interesting concept, unless there are serious advances in rock boring techniques (personal opinion: there are none coming) this will never approach fruition. I would suggest anyone interested in further research look into the "Big Dig" of Bos…

Maybe one day we could connect the individual pods, and even gasp route these "coupled cars" on rails above ground. I wonder if anyone has tried that yet?

Above ground rail isn't practical in urban areas. The video had silly car tunnels, but in practice, I'm sure the bulk of their business will be subway tunnels.

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#329

Post by phlakaton »

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…

Reports I read on this a month or more ago suggested that yes, part of his goal is to improve the speed/cost of building tunnels, so that it's feasible to go build a whole bunch of them quickly.

(That being said, building a bunch of tunnels in the bosom of San Andreas strikes me as hubris... But having lived in LA and its traffic for many years, I'm willing to be convinced. :-) )

Re: The Boring Company [video]

#330

Post by SubiculumCode »

bdamm wrote: post #273
ChuckMcM wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As a pilot I find this idea disconcerting because my thoughts are so imprecise compared to my actions. However, I suppose it would be like learning to ride a bike; you'd get used to what it feels like for your brain to guide the rocket much like a bicycle rider shifts their weight. But really, couldn't a computer do this better?

I'd hate to see what letting my mind drift does to a flying ship.
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