This is the thread where we get hype for the Hyperloop

[Boyiee]

No worse than being thrown out your windshield in a car crash if the airbag fails to deploy. Besides, dying like an Indiana Jones villain is going out in style.

Airbags don't dictate whether you are ejected or not, nor do they stop you from being ejected.

[Buffy]

I once was so sick I threw up so hard I bled out my eyes and burst blood vessels all over my face, including in my eye, tongue, and throat.

The thought that could happen again is terrifying.

[Tokitoki]

I once was so sick I threw up so hard I bled out my eyes and burst blood vessels all over my face, including in my eye, tongue, and throat.

The thought that could happen again is terrifying.

That's how I burst mine as well. At least with this you wouldn't be gagging, it'd happen as you passed out.

[Rhinox]

Sup toki lol


FYI the daily show just tore into Elon musk and the hyperlube

[BaneTheBrawler]

john oliver's reaction to the iron man comment mirrored my own. THAT SHIT DOESNT FLY. i tuned out after that though because i knew there was more cringeworthy reporting coming up, and i dont like cringing.

[Seiji Okita]

I just find it humorous how people think that something like this could be built in a timely manor, without oversight, delay, and misappropriation. I mean this is untested tech, especially on this scale. Aside from that, coming out of our economic slump contractors and subcontractors have been having a tendency to drag out contracts and ask for more money. I mean, who knows what the next job will be?

There are countless examples across the country of fairly basic infrastructure projects(highway interchanges & rail systems) that are drug out and over budgeted for those exact reasons. Considering those are tried and true undertakings with plenty of precedent to follow, I just don't see how it bodes well for this as a rational solution in the here and now.

That said, I'd love for some eccentric billionaire/group of billionaires to go hung ho on something like this and it pan out. Some technological revolution in the modern era would be absolutely amazing.

[Tokitoki]

I just find it humorous how people think that something like this could be built in a timely manor, without oversight, delay, and misappropriation. I mean this is untested tech, especially on this scale. Aside from that, coming out of our economic slump contractors and subcontractors have been having a tendency to drag out contracts and ask for more money. I mean, who knows what the next job will be?

There are countless examples across the country of fairly basic infrastructure projects(highway interchanges & rail systems) that are drug out and over budgeted for those exact reasons. Considering those are tried and true undertakings with plenty of precedent to follow, I just don't see how it bodes well for this as a rational solution in the here and now.

That said, I'd love for some eccentric billionaire/group of billionaires to go hung ho on something like this and it pan out. Some technological revolution in the modern era would be absolutely amazing.

The ongoing projects that go longer than originally planned also has to do with design oversight and availability of material.

One of our projects, for instance, will last twice as long as originally planned because of a large, private electrical system and feed within the project limits. We had to break an enormous trench in the roadway, hire a sub that specializes in this, bring in ConEd, and the city had to find funding for all of it because everything needed to be moved and spliced in order to accommodate a railway they were placing. Unless this private entity discloses this information to the designer, or the designer knows to look for/ask about it nobody will see it coming.

[BaneTheBrawler]

timely manor


like a sir

[Talint]

I just find it humorous how people think that something like this could be built in a timely manor, without oversight, delay, and misappropriation. I mean this is untested tech, especially on this scale. Aside from that, coming out of our economic slump contractors and subcontractors have been having a tendency to drag out contracts and ask for more money. I mean, who knows what the next job will be?

There are countless examples across the country of fairly basic infrastructure projects(highway interchanges & rail systems) that are drug out and over budgeted for those exact reasons. Considering those are tried and true undertakings with plenty of precedent to follow, I just don't see how it bodes well for this as a rational solution in the here and now.

That said, I'd love for some eccentric billionaire/group of billionaires to go hung ho on something like this and it pan out. Some technological revolution in the modern era would be absolutely amazing.

Nobody should be arguing to build it for cost reasons. I came from the state that pioneered The Big Dig after all.

It should be argued from a "Hey, our infrastructure is so old and we used to be really good at this shit. This is what we can do next." standpoint.

[archibaldcrane]

It's a good point, kinda like how there's no way a new American auto manufacturer could possibly ramp up from building 1 car a day to 90 a day in a 6 month timeframe.

[Tokitoki]

Nobody should be arguing to build it for cost reasons. I came from the state that pioneered The Big Dig after all.

It should be argued from a "Hey, our infrastructure is so old and we used to be really good at this shit. This is what we can do next." standpoint.

The difference now is that we have a large population that has taken up a large portion of usable land. This doesn't necessarily mean that a house is on every square inch, but the land is owned and used for various things (farms/fields is a large one in the midwest). Areas of high population density do not have the room to add new infrastructure without demolishing the old, which in turn causes more congestion on the already-in-use roads and bridges.

Let's take the FDR Drive on the east side of Manhattan as an example. It was not built to handle the traffic volume that it currently sees. It is in disrepair and is constantly congested. We cannot simply add a lane to the the roadway because there is water on one side and buildings on the other and ABOVE. Placing new roadway segments would mean pouring piers and foundations in the water and building from the water. Inevitably, you'd also have to close 1-2 lanes in order to do so and cause more traffic.

To prevent too much traffic from building the project would have to take place almost entirely at night. This increases costs, almost twofold, because union workers are paid more for offshift hours. This is particularly true for Operating Engineers. They earn DOUBLE their hourly rate if they work overtime or at night.

I would imagine it would be the same problems in LA, San Fran, San Diego, Philly, Boston, etc.

[archibaldcrane]

Seriously though, other than right outside of SF and right outside of LA, there is jack fucking shit for like a 300 mile stretch between the two. Farmers fields would only have to get cut through when they have to divert from the already-owned land of the 5 freeway.

The 5 freeway drive from LA to SF is a straight shot basically, but it's really fucking boring.
http://0.tqn.com/d/gocalifornia/1/0/...f-i5-north.jpg
http://0.tqn.com/d/gocalifornia/1/0/...f-i5-south.jpg

Kettleman City? Buttonwood? Los Banos? Yeah, there's jack fucking shit on that route.

[Cantih]

It should be argued from a "Hey, our infrastructure is so old and we used to be really good at this shit. This is what we can do next." standpoint.

^

I mean, for fucks sake, we're the country that built the Panama Canal, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam. All BEFORE WWII.
We even put a man on the moon only about 66 years after we even got serious about this flying shit. (I would also like to point out, 11 years earlier in the same arena, we participated in the Berlin Airlift, which was logistically incredible.)

Today?
Well, the previous World Trade Center had ground broken in 1966, and was pretty much done with tenants moving in in 1971. Five years.
The new one? Work didn't even start until 2006 (the cornerstone doesn't count, but if you say it does, add two more years), it's now 2013, still not done. Seven Fucking Years. It's been nearly half a century, WE SHOULD BE FUCKING BETTER.

As I understand it (though I haven't looked into recently, so I may be wrong), New Orleans is STILL largely fucked over from Katrina. Eight years it's been.

Shit like this makes you want to slap some motherfuckers.

[Jaybar]

The difference now is that we have a large population that has taken up a large portion of usable land. This doesn't necessarily mean that a house is on every square inch, but the land is owned and used for various things (farms/fields is a large one in the midwest). Areas of high population density do not have the room to add new infrastructure without demolishing the old, which in turn causes more congestion on the already-in-use roads and bridges.

Let's take the FDR Drive on the east side of Manhattan as an example. It was not built to handle the traffic volume that it currently sees. It is in disrepair and is constantly congested. We cannot simply add a lane to the the roadway because there is water on one side and buildings on the other and ABOVE. Placing new roadway segments would mean pouring piers and foundations in the water and building from the water. Inevitably, you'd also have to close 1-2 lanes in order to do so and cause more traffic.

To prevent too much traffic from building the project would have to take place almost entirely at night. This increases costs, almost twofold, because union workers are paid more for offshift hours. This is particularly true for Operating Engineers. They earn DOUBLE their hourly rate if they work overtime or at night.

I would imagine it would be the same problems in LA, San Fran, San Diego, Philly, Boston, etc.

I just want to make sure you are not advocating that adding lanes to highways is a step forward in congestion relief. Otherwise, everything else is right - logistically it is difficult, but not impossible. Although I find it incredibly hard to believe that most commuters don't have an alternative route OR method of getting to work in these cities.

[SamanosukeShiva]

only 20 minutes from LA to Las Vegas with the hyperloop, just how many people would go to vegas everynight if this is made reality? lots. Also, this would drive down SF real estate market, which is a good thing, BECAUSE THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH.

[Tokitoki]

I just want to make sure you are not advocating that adding lanes to highways is a step forward in congestion relief. Otherwise, everything else is right - logistically it is difficult, but not impossible. Although I find it incredibly hard to believe that most commuters don't have an alternative route OR method of getting to work in these cities.

No, my point was more that it is hard to expand infrastructure in already crowded and established urban/suburban areas.

[archibaldcrane]

only 20 minutes from LA to Las Vegas with the hyperloop, just how many people would go to vegas everynight if this is made reality? lots. Also, this would drive down SF real estate market, which is a good thing, BECAUSE THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH.

Just remember, this isn't a train that stops every 20 miles. This is a sealed system with 2 stops - one in LA and one in SF. Its purpose is to fill the gap between flying and driving/riding trains, which is in that 250-800 mile distance. Even the proposed other stops - Las Vegas, San Diego are still not exactly in the cheaper-real-estate suburbs.

However, the proposed stop in Fresno could very well create a ton of Fresno-to-SF hyperloop commuters...although then you have to live in fucking Fresno.

[AidenCarby]

Beam me up, Scotty.

[archibaldcrane]

I'm just trying to figure out how, in a 1/1000th-the-air-pressure-of-earth environment, will it have enough air "sucked up" by the front turbine as it travels to "power" the air hockey table-esque "air bearings" that it is nominally floating on?

[archibaldcrane]

Also, its top speed is 680mph in the design document. 300mph to get into/out of SF and LA and over hills and sharper turns, then 680mph on the long straight stretch in between.