Coolstar
Senior Member
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Virgin Hyperloop hits an important milestone: the first human passenger test
The pod carrying two people reached 100 mph down the company’s 500-meter test track.
www.theverge.com
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TransPod Hyperloop
- Thread starter SaugeenJunction
- Start date
www.theverge.com
Urban Sky
Senior Member
I would strongly suggest any reader to skip the “wow, we’ve invented the wheel - again!” cheering and start reading at “THERE ARE STILL A HOST OF TECHNICAL, FINANCIAL, AND REGULATORY CHALLENGES AHEAD” for a fresh reminder why all of the above is just Gadgetbahn (i.e. technology for the sake of technology - without any understanding of the trade-offs inherent to guideway-dependent transportation)...Virgin Hyperloop hits an important milestone: the first human passenger test
The pod carrying two people reached 100 mph down the company’s 500-meter test track.
WislaHD
Superstar
Concur with the above, and I see zero prospect of this replacing any form of mass transportation, but fair to point out this is still an important milestone for the technology. In honour of said milestone, here is a video from the fantastic B1M channel covering the development:
HighIron905
New Member
^Also in honour of that milestone:
NoahB
Active Member
South Korea's national rail company also is working on a hyperloop apparently. They reached 1,019km/h in a scale model this week. I trust them more than any of the startups to actually bring one to market. But we will see.
www.independent.co.uk
I doubt a hyperloop system will evert be cheaper to build than regular high-speed rail. So It is unlikely to replace HSR in places that are already bulking at HSR construction costs.
Hyperloop hits 1,000km/h in Korea, days after Virgin passenger test
South Korea hopes to launch first hyperloop network in 2024
www.independent.co.uk
I doubt a hyperloop system will evert be cheaper to build than regular high-speed rail. So It is unlikely to replace HSR in places that are already bulking at HSR construction costs.
HighIron905
New Member
^"Press X to doubt"
Also done with a scale model.
Hyperloop exists as a VC scam and as a front to do business with sketchy regimes. It is also a grande play by Elon Musk to turn people against high speed rail and transit in order to trap people in their cars so they would buy more Teslas.
Ever notice how all the tracks are never more than 500m? At some point this is all going to implode, just like Theranos.
Also done with a scale model.
Hyperloop exists as a VC scam and as a front to do business with sketchy regimes. It is also a grande play by Elon Musk to turn people against high speed rail and transit in order to trap people in their cars so they would buy more Teslas.
Ever notice how all the tracks are never more than 500m? At some point this is all going to implode, just like Theranos.
NoahB
Active Member
The short length is odd. They would need a lot more track to be able to test the speeds they claim they can achieve. Japan's new maglev started with a 7km test track, which was then replaced with a 17km test track as they progressed through the design. 0.5km is insanely short.
HighIron905
New Member
Basically, creating low pressure tubes of significant length is exceedingly difficult. It is one of the biggest limits of the concept and arguably a brick wall. The longer it takes for them to start building longer test tracks, the more smoke and mirrors they can show off and as a result more funding rounds.
MrGoose
Active Member
Hyperloop is a scam. All the problems with space travel with none of the fault tolerance that comes with empty space.
Travelling at 1200kph, great when the nearest object is 100 km away. Not so great when the outer pressurized tube is millimeters away.
A pressurized tube traveling at high speeds inside another pressurized tube will never pass safety rigor and be economical at the same time.
Travelling at 1200kph, great when the nearest object is 100 km away. Not so great when the outer pressurized tube is millimeters away.
A pressurized tube traveling at high speeds inside another pressurized tube will never pass safety rigor and be economical at the same time.
HighIron905
New Member
Looks like next week's RailNatter is going to be a good one. If you're interested in this kind of gadgetbahn stuff, I would recommend tuning in.
lenaitch
Senior Member
They don't mention the energy costs to maintain a (near) vacuum over a commercially viable distance, and how would the passengers breath during anything more than a very short distance.
afransen
Senior Member
I doubt it was malicious on the part of Musk. He likes to dream big and question orthodoxy. He just isn't always right. Revealingly, he has not pursued this idea himself. I think he knows it is likely a dud. He pivoted more to tunneling, which is a lot more tractable, though still a high risk technology in terms of being commercially successful. The demo system in Vegas is just about complete, and there seems to be interest in expanding it.
I think Musk is also wrong about his idea that people will want to use suborbital rockets to travel from point to point on earth. There are a lot of problems with this idea, including significant discomfort of rocket launches (people are trained for withstanding multiple gs of acceleration) and the noise burden of launching rockets anywhere near urban areas where people might want to actually go. I think it's quite a half-baked idea. Even though not all his ideas are great, he still has an impressive track record of doing what others thought impossible.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
I stumbled across Gareth Dennis’ Youtube channel a few weeks ago and have become so addicted to his videos I became one of his supporters on Patreon.
For those who can’t wait until next Wednesday:
Also, I can’t wait for Episode 43 and it would be great if they’d at least mention HFR:
Coolstar
Senior Member
Bringing back life into this thread, the Baltimore-DC Hyperloop has been removed from his website.
www.archpaper.com
Elon Musk’s Baltimore-to-D.C. Hyperloop appears dead
Plans for a Boring Company-dug Hyperloop route from D.C. to Baltimore, and the Dugout Loop in Los Angeles, appear to have fallen by the wayside.
www.archpaper.com
afransen
Senior Member
I think it's worth being clear that 'Loop' and 'Hyperloop' are very different ideas. Hyperloop is very dubious and has a lot of very large engineering challenges that make it difficult (read: unlikely) to realize. 'Loop' is just cars/car-like vehicles on underground roads. The economics of that can be debated, but it is clearly technologically possible. It also doesn't need to achieve the fantastical speeds quoted by Musk to be competitive.