#hyperloop

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[probablyasocialecologist]

The Hyperloop was always a scam

It's time to be honest about Musk's vacuum tube to nowhere

Musk never had any intention of building the Hyperloop. He only needed it to help kill or substantially delay the high-speed rail project and the alternate vision of sustainable collective transportation it offered. It threatened his interests as an automaker and his elite vision of “individualized” mobility that simply worked better for him.

[...]

In the time since California started talking about high-speed rail and Elon Musk interjected with his fantasy to help sidetrack it, China moved ahead and built a network consisting of 42,000 kilometres (26,000 miles) of track. Europe is continuing to expand its own network, and Japan is building a maglev line that will run at speeds of over 500 km/h (310 mph). The first segment from Tokyo to Nagoya could open by 2027. Not to be outdone, China is working on a maglev of its own to beat its Japanese rivals. While the Hyperloop deception spread far and wide, nowhere was it stronger than in the United States. As countries around the world moved forward with real transport improvements, North Americans were distracted by the fantasies of clueless, but self-confident tech moguls. They left people trapped in their cars and denied better options to get around that people in many other parts of the world — even those that are quite a bit poorer — take for granted. Now all they can do is shovel money at automakers to try to power cars with batteries instead of internal combustion engines. They have no vision for a better, less car dependent alternative.

[ralfmaximus]

Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation company building tube-encased lines to zip passengers and freight from city to city at airplane-like speeds, is shutting down, according to people familiar with the situation.

Once a high-profile startup, Hyperloop One raised more than $450 million since its founding in 2014, according to PitchBook. It built a small test track near Las Vegas to develop its transportation technology, and for a time took the name Virgin Hyperloop One after Richard Branson’s Virgin invested. Virgin removed its branding after the startup decided last year to focus on cargo rather than people.

Buried halfway through: it's another failed Elon Musk venture.

Not mentioned at all: the only reason Musk proposed Hyperloop was to thwart California's high-speed rail initiative and sell more cars. You see, his alternative technology of shooting supersonic capsules through evacuated vacuum tubes would be so much better than stinky old trains.

The only problem?

None of the technology exists. All the prototypes sucked. Even after ten years and a half billion dollars.

One "prototype" is literally a one-lane concrete tunnel allowing a single Tesla automobile to travel at astonishing speeds up to 107 MPH. Technically you can drive faster than that on most american highways.

Also that's 50-100 MPH slower than the high speed rail California wanted to implement a decade ago.

And now the whole venture is quietly going away.

Unpaywalled version here.

[frigid-metal]

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

[airandangels]

The hyperloop is dead for real this time

Turns out the real hyperloop was the friends we made along the way.

Colossal waste of time and money, produced and accomplished nothing, other than diverting interest and investment from other forms of mass transit so the creep could sell more expensive electric cars (probably his real angle all along).

The hyperloop idea is likely the reason why Musk’s name was mentioned in an early episode of Star Trek Discovery as an example of a historical pioneer of technology. That aged like milk.

[pradaldi]

Look who's there, my new sticker design ! Obviously a good pair with my "Train Good" sticker.

For sale on my shop !

[boschintegral-photo]

Hyperloop (Prototype Vacuum Train) Spoorwegmuseum (Railway Museum) Utrecht, Netherlands