(Edit: This is a reply to a now-deleted comment about a CA ballot question to kill the CA high speed rail project and instead fund a Hyperloop pilot.)
Hyperloop was originally intended to elicit exactly this response—replace a project based on current technology with a pie-in-the-sky research project based on an unproven tech.
There have been many pilot projects in transit tech that were never successful enough to merit subsequent wide deployment. Is anyone connected to airline finances at all concerned about Hyperloop? If Hyperloop was real then airlines would be panicking.
An analysis reported earlier here was that it will either be half as fast as proposed, or will cost more due to requiring larger diameter tubes. [1]
If you read old discussions here on HN you'll find serious questions about the design's ability to cope with both seams and thermal expansion in the tube. [2][3][4] One proposal previously discussed here replaces Musk's design with a knitted carbon fiber tube. [5] Anyone who discounts the seriousness of the thermal expansion issue would do well to read the Heat Orders FAQ from Virginia Railway Express. [6]
Hyperloop is back in the news because the pilot project is Musk's carrot dangled to the state of Texas to allow him to build showrooms, see "Tesla's Musk woos Texas lawmakers with talk of track, car plant". [7] The Hyperloop test track is about benefiting Tesla, not building out Hyperloop. It's a political bargaining chip.
tod222|11 years ago
Hyperloop was originally intended to elicit exactly this response—replace a project based on current technology with a pie-in-the-sky research project based on an unproven tech.
There have been many pilot projects in transit tech that were never successful enough to merit subsequent wide deployment. Is anyone connected to airline finances at all concerned about Hyperloop? If Hyperloop was real then airlines would be panicking.
An analysis reported earlier here was that it will either be half as fast as proposed, or will cost more due to requiring larger diameter tubes. [1]
If you read old discussions here on HN you'll find serious questions about the design's ability to cope with both seams and thermal expansion in the tube. [2][3][4] One proposal previously discussed here replaces Musk's design with a knitted carbon fiber tube. [5] Anyone who discounts the seriousness of the thermal expansion issue would do well to read the Heat Orders FAQ from Virginia Railway Express. [6]
Hyperloop is back in the news because the pilot project is Musk's carrot dangled to the state of Texas to allow him to build showrooms, see "Tesla's Musk woos Texas lawmakers with talk of track, car plant". [7] The Hyperloop test track is about benefiting Tesla, not building out Hyperloop. It's a political bargaining chip.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7000412 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6202327 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6202966 [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8773406 [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6658988 [6] http://www.vre.org/feedback/frequently_asked_questions/faq_h... [7] http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/15/autos-tesla-texas-...