Back in the news — "Musk’s 'Hyperloop’ is feasible and should be nationwide"

[Spock]

davemchine wrote:
What is the advantage of the hyper loop over flying?

You don't leave the ground ...









... by nearly so much.

[Ombligo]

I look at the map and go huh?

No stops in Boston, Charlotte, Virginia, or Tampa/St. Pete (but Mobile, AL, Tallahassee, and Concord, CA have stops). You can only get to Denver via Chicago.

My other concern is one of the Experts is a man named Darryl Oster - I know him from his time as a city councilman in Crystal River, FL - he is a complete idiot (not because of his politics, just because he is, well, he is an idiot).

Finally the thing that will cripple this - American's can't bring their SUV

[davemchine]

I'm not sure I believe the $30 price tag in the article (thanks Paul for pointing out the price). I'm in anyway though. It travels from Seattle to Phoenix and that's a common route for me.

[Carnos Jax]

Will Collier wrote: In engineering terms, the technologies and concepts are well-understood and straightforward. Logistically, it's an iron-plated bitch to pull off, especially on that kind of scale.

Ditto

[sekker]

Carnos Jax wrote:
[quote=Will Collier]In engineering terms, the technologies and concepts are well-understood and straightforward. Logistically, it's an iron-plated bitch to pull off, especially on that kind of scale.

Ditto
That was exactly the argument in the 1800s - rail lines in Europe that were 10 km in length were a big deal.

It was thought that to cross North America was impossible.

Arguably, this kind of transportation network could be more valuable than any space science.

For those naysayers that are discussing the initial choices of cities as destinations, I encourage you to read and learn. Do keep in mind that the new system largely uses EXISTING easements that we ALREADY own,

[Paul F.]

One of the advantages of Hyperloop is that it's not a trillion dollar buried train, it's built in EXISTING highway corridors, in EXISTING rights of way, on elevated stanchions. This makes it considerably LESS expensive to build than driving it underground.
Unfortunately, it ALSO means that in densely packed urban areas, like the areas Ombligo mentions, there may not BE the kind of existing rights of way to build it IN... which MAY be the reason some "obvious" cities are skipped on that map.

Also, keep in mind that we won't REALLY know how much it's going to cost until we try a section of it, build it, build the cars, and try it.
Also, if the first leg is built in California, it'll be a fair estimation that any OTHER state could build it for, oh, say, HALF that... California's transportation department could find a way to show a loss on being handed a gold brick.

I wonder (thinking out loud), how many "cars" could be run in a tube simultaneously? In other words, would this be a "one car leaves every 6 hours" deal, or one leaving every hour? Every ten minutes?


Only one criticism of one of the artists conceptions in that article; the one in front of the Golden Gate - never happen... it's now blocking the ship channel! Now, seeing if it could be "slung" under the Golden Gate Bridge (with proper upgrades and reinforcements, of course) would be interesting!

[Filliam H. Muffman]

I never knew Concord, CA was northeast of San Francisco! :poke:

[Uncle Wig]

sekker wrote:
Awesome!

Ye Grinches can go say Humbug elsewhere.

It's time for the U.S. to lead in easy transportation.

By the way, the idea of tube connections was in Robert Heinlein's novel Friday.

Well yeah, it's time. But we can't even take care of the infrastructure we have now, much less build anything wonderful and new. I would LOVE to see something like this become reality, and I'd love it even more if it happened in the USA. Obviously I'm very pessemistic that we, as a nation can pull it off.

[GeneL]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the above-mentioned post about crushed and forklift pierced damage to items sent by UPS, FEDEX and USPS.

If these "experienced" movers of goods can't get inanimate goods from point A to point B without damage, what are the odds of a catastrophic "ride" with this conveyance?

I just had a thought that you would come out of the tube like toothpaste!

Just saying... ? miley-shocked003:

[sekker]

Uncle Wig wrote:
[quote=sekker]
Awesome!

Ye Grinches can go say Humbug elsewhere.

It's time for the U.S. to lead in easy transportation.

By the way, the idea of tube connections was in Robert Heinlein's novel Friday.

Well yeah, it's time. But we can't even take care of the infrastructure we have now, much less build anything wonderful and new. I would LOVE to see something like this become reality, and I'd love it even more if it happened in the USA. Obviously I'm very pessemistic that we, as a nation can pull it off.
It's always more fun to build something new than take care of maintenance. That's EXACTLY why the Superloop might be possible.