No upvote from me... tired of seeing articles like this. You're too busy to actually tell us what it is.. but you're not too busy to tweet, debunk others theories, or give comments teasing people with small details.
Agreed about tired of hearing speculation but he has only mentioned it a handful of times and said he would publish a paper/plans in August of this year (now).
It's pretty amazing that a vague futuristic concept can generate so much publicity.
I know what you mean. Perhaps HN agrees. I submitted an article describing what this is and it got no where. Weird though, because any criticism of Musk usually gets karma slaughtered.
Mr Musk says he is so busy with SpaceX and Tesla that he will not immediately try to develop Hyperloop himself. Only if no-one else picks up the challenge will he consider attempting to make it a reality at a later time.
Hyped up article.
I wonder if the idea of such tubes is practical though. It's like a giant hi-tech metro tube with certainly only one or two stops. That's high maintenance stuff. More than one thousand km of infrastructure. A plane might be more expensive but its 100meter long tube is less to take care off.
OTOH today's metro infrastructure is quite huge too if you were to line it up.
You have to consider the total cost of ownership. The exercise goes like this. What is the total traveling population per year that would get from point A to point B that would ride planes if not for hyperloop (assuming it becomes reality). That gives you the number of planes that would be used per year. Need to consider per year, because a lot of traveling is seasonal. Then what is the cost to maintain those planes, operating costs like fuel and pilots, insurance costs for damages and risks, etc, etc.
I have no idea how the total cost of ownership would compare. But I wouldn't write off hyperloop just because it would be expensive. It may be possible to make it work. Given how much plane tickets cost, I can easily imagine people paying more money for something that's seemingly more convenient and safe than planes.
edit: The man figured out how to turn launching rockets into a profitable business. The man thinks it's possible to build a nation-wide charging station network that can charge all the cars his company builds for free. With this type of thinking, I think he takes cost feasibility seriously, so I'm curious what he has up his sleeve.
edit2: Maybe what I wrote above maybe sounds too much like hero worship. I'm not saying he has everything figured out. I'm just saying I'd be very on the fence and would not bet for him or against him, but most definitely not against him.
I wonder how much of Musk stepping slightly back from this is the realistic notion that he could spread himself too thin and how much is a realisation that Hyperloop could be less of a home run than first thought? Any tough proposal will have its critics or become mired in government/environmental hassle. If it was exceptional, I don't know that it would be released in this way (after a wait, freely, etc).
I'm also curious, if it is a strong concept, as to who will pick up the ball and run with it? People talked about electric vehicles and commercial space exploration for a long, long time before very few people did either as effectively as Musk has done.
One thing that I think he might've overstated is the ability to show up and leave without the waits seen at airports due to security. Even the Eurostar has a security line. Unless baggage was deposited/couriered to a departure point in advance and passengers showed up later?
If it is all the real deal, Sydney-Melbourne would be a good pairing. Ranks as the third highest route for passengers flown if Wikipedia is to be believed.
The Eurostar is unique in terms of high speed rail in that it has any sort of security check, to the best of my knowledge. Anywhere else, even for international journeys, you merely turn up for the time the train is due to depart, as with any other train service. (In the Eurostar's defence, given a highest class ticket, you merely have to pass through the automated check-in gates ten minutes prior to arrival, and half an hour is the furthest deadline, for the lowest class tickets. I'm unaware of any major airport that expects you to be able to get from check-in to the gate in half an hour.)
Regardless, the Eurostar security is utter nonsense anyway — especially given you're allowed to take almost everything onboard! It makes a whole load of hassle for nothing. At least at airports they're actively stopping you from taking a fair amount of stuff… It seems like the right solution here is to drop the security, rather than anything more drastic! [Edit: oh, looking this up, they appear to have changed this. They now have most of the same restrictions as air flights do.]
Taking the baggage separately is an interesting idea and possible solution to the security problems.
If the 'Loop is as I'm imagining it (based on scant details, granted) then the actual vehicle components are small, numerous and frequent. Given the short transit time it could be reasonably expected that people carry NO luggage whatsoever and could be quickly processed by a walk through a (potentially computer-operated) backscatter x-ray machine. Luggage runs could be carried in separate vehicles, spaced so that if anything were to 'go off' there would be loss of infrastructure but no loss of life.
Has there ever been this much fanfare and media speculation over the unveiling of an idea before? The hyperloop is not a product or research, its just an idea.
I can't think of an instance when this has happened in my lifetime. Kind of bizarre
I would love to see this announcement today on a livestream. The fanboy in me is thinking of this like the steve jobs keynotes from a few years back. "Oh and one more thing, it can bend space time"
[+] [-] rgbrenner|12 years ago|reply
I'm worn out.. don't care anymore. You keep it.
[+] [-] cryptoz|12 years ago|reply
Citation: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/356776740409974785
[+] [-] dm2|12 years ago|reply
It's pretty amazing that a vague futuristic concept can generate so much publicity.
[+] [-] ohwp|12 years ago|reply
I just opened the comments to see yours and know there is no need to read the article and to upvote the story.
Edit: asked PG about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6199254 Maybe other people have good suggestions as well.
[+] [-] alan_cx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnchristopher|12 years ago|reply
Mr Musk says he is so busy with SpaceX and Tesla that he will not immediately try to develop Hyperloop himself. Only if no-one else picks up the challenge will he consider attempting to make it a reality at a later time.
Hyped up article.
I wonder if the idea of such tubes is practical though. It's like a giant hi-tech metro tube with certainly only one or two stops. That's high maintenance stuff. More than one thousand km of infrastructure. A plane might be more expensive but its 100meter long tube is less to take care off.
OTOH today's metro infrastructure is quite huge too if you were to line it up.
[+] [-] PakG1|12 years ago|reply
I have no idea how the total cost of ownership would compare. But I wouldn't write off hyperloop just because it would be expensive. It may be possible to make it work. Given how much plane tickets cost, I can easily imagine people paying more money for something that's seemingly more convenient and safe than planes.
edit: The man figured out how to turn launching rockets into a profitable business. The man thinks it's possible to build a nation-wide charging station network that can charge all the cars his company builds for free. With this type of thinking, I think he takes cost feasibility seriously, so I'm curious what he has up his sleeve.
edit2: Maybe what I wrote above maybe sounds too much like hero worship. I'm not saying he has everything figured out. I'm just saying I'd be very on the fence and would not bet for him or against him, but most definitely not against him.
[+] [-] untog|12 years ago|reply
(and by "someone who knows what they are talking about" I don't mean TechCrunch)
[+] [-] prawn|12 years ago|reply
I'm also curious, if it is a strong concept, as to who will pick up the ball and run with it? People talked about electric vehicles and commercial space exploration for a long, long time before very few people did either as effectively as Musk has done.
One thing that I think he might've overstated is the ability to show up and leave without the waits seen at airports due to security. Even the Eurostar has a security line. Unless baggage was deposited/couriered to a departure point in advance and passengers showed up later?
If it is all the real deal, Sydney-Melbourne would be a good pairing. Ranks as the third highest route for passengers flown if Wikipedia is to be believed.
[+] [-] gsnedders|12 years ago|reply
Regardless, the Eurostar security is utter nonsense anyway — especially given you're allowed to take almost everything onboard! It makes a whole load of hassle for nothing. At least at airports they're actively stopping you from taking a fair amount of stuff… It seems like the right solution here is to drop the security, rather than anything more drastic! [Edit: oh, looking this up, they appear to have changed this. They now have most of the same restrictions as air flights do.]
[+] [-] alexhawdon|12 years ago|reply
If the 'Loop is as I'm imagining it (based on scant details, granted) then the actual vehicle components are small, numerous and frequent. Given the short transit time it could be reasonably expected that people carry NO luggage whatsoever and could be quickly processed by a walk through a (potentially computer-operated) backscatter x-ray machine. Luggage runs could be carried in separate vehicles, spaced so that if anything were to 'go off' there would be loss of infrastructure but no loss of life.
[+] [-] kenshiro_o|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kingkawn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jotm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rwhitman|12 years ago|reply
I can't think of an instance when this has happened in my lifetime. Kind of bizarre
[+] [-] saeedjabbar|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] patrickk|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shawabawa3|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brianbreslin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jusben1369|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pond_lilly|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]