IMO, the Hyperloop will be easier to install and better than driverless cars.

[CK_John]

Just an old idea expanded from buildings to mass transit, the good old vacuum tube.

Even today our local bank still use the tubes between the main building and their drivein lanes.

They could run the tubes on the interstate system right of way or center lanes to lessen getting new land paths.

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/19/hyperloop-10-years_n_6357430.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

[grahamhgreen]

1. It's really a great idea that needs funding immediately. Instead, 80% of budget is war.

musk is changing the world.

[Warpy]

2. It's cheaper to lay track or build monorails

and that's more likely what they'll do for intercity transport.

It's what they did here in NM for our high speed rail.

[grahamhgreen]

4. The loop is faster than trains/planes BC it eliminates the air resistance with scum tubes.

[Bosonic]

3. They're not mutually exclusive ideas

[Orrex]

5. Nature abhors a vacuum.

As of 11:38ET on 12/21/2014, this marks the 418th time I've successfully deployed that "joke," with no end in sight.

[DetlefK]

6. The Hyperloop is a very bad concept.

1. Vacuum. You know how we make that. Pumps. Pumps that run 24/7. Pumps that will eat a shit-ton of energy if they have to evacuate the huge volume of a transit-tube.

2. What if an accident happens? You will be stuck in a tunnel without air. You can't get out, no matter what. Your pod has a leak? We're all gonna suffocate.

3. The human body (and in a particular a paying customer expecting comfort) can only withstand so much acceleration. That means, the acceleration-phase has to be as short as possible compared to the whole trip. And that's why these high-acceleration modes of transportation are only practical for long distances.
AND THEN we return to the problem with huge tunnels of death.




It would be far more practical and cheaper to simpy overhaul the train-system.

[Agschmid]

7. It isn't actually a vacuum fyi...

So tube of death seems a bit dramatic.

[DetlefK]

8. Try to breathe that:

I work at an ultra-high-vacuum vessel, so I know a little bit about vacuums.



http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24036-hyperloop-musk-unveils-highspeed-pneumatic-transport.html#.VJb69f8CDA

So we have a pod with 1 bar of pressure and a tunnel 1000 times his volume with a pressure of 0.001 bar. If the pod has a leak: What is the pressure in the pod?

[CK_John]

9. Almost word for word of what they said about the "chunnel".

The Chunnel runs from Folkestone in the south of England, to Calais in northern France.

Tunnels are scary but also have a very good safety record.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. The Chunnel isn't a vacuum tube. It's a regular tunnel.

The problem with the hyperloop isn't that it's a tunnel; it's that it's a vacuum. And, as we all know, vacuums suck. And nature abhors them.

[Agschmid]

12. It's not a vacuum, that's innacurate.

There is a fan and a fan cowl on the front of the vehicle, if it was a true vacumn that wouldn't need to be there.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Then it must work on some kind of pressure differential that isn't a true vacuum.

Be that as it may, the principle is evidently based on sucking.

[Agschmid]

17. There is a pressure differential that is correct, the pressure is reduced from atmospheric.

But the idea that it's a death tube (not what you said I know) is a stretch. Now I actually think by the time it's built it will be outdated...

[Fumesucker]

15. If nature abhorred a vacuum it wouldn't have so vastly much of it

99.99% or more of the universe is filled with vacuum.

[DetlefK]

19. "Nature abhorrs vaccum" has an equivalent in thermodynamics.

It means going to a state of minimized energy, enthalpy, Free Energy or whatever thermodynamic potential fits to that system.

But not every system is equal: Some gases exist in free space, some gases exist in a deep gravity-well.

[hunter]

10. If I was Emperor of the Earth...

... secure in my space fortress, protected by countless EMP laser blaster satellites, I like to joke that I'd knock out any vehicle (other than medical transport) traveling faster than 50 kilometers per hour (31 miles per hour).

World travel would still be possible, you'd simply have to make vacations longer.

So sit back and enjoy the ride.

Hurry hurry hurry is a terrible way to live.

Many people are probably relieved I'm not Emperor of Earth sitting in my space fortress.

But I'm still a very dangerous fellow when I don't know what I'm doing.

[CK_John]

13. Tomorrow you will have more time to think about it.

[Fumesucker]

16. Even human powered vehicles can go over 31 mph

Well over double that speed in fact.

http://www.ihpva.org/land.htm

At the first IHPSC in1975, IHPVA founder Chet Kyle’s Teledyne Titan was clocked at a speed of 44.69 mph.

In 1986, Gardner Martin’s Gold Rush (now in the Smithsonian) ridden by “Fast Freddy” Markham won the DuPont prize at a record 65.484 mph.

In 1992, Cheetah, ridden by Chris Huber, broke 68 mph.

In 2008, Sam Whittingham became the World Champion and won the $25,000 .Decimach prize with a speed of 82.33 mph.

[hunter]

18. I'd make an exception for human powered vehicles and animals, of course.

I'd leave guys like this alone too: