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The Hyperloop was always a scam (www.disconnect.blog)

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

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[-] Lianodel@ttrpg.network 119 points 11 months ago

I have to admit I was kind of impressed seeing the way two scams worked together: the Hyperloop, and the Loop. People genuinely thought they were related projects because of the name and, I guess, the tunnels. So the Hyperloop made the Loop sound more exciting than it really was, and the Loop made it seem like there was progress towards the Hyperloop.

Of course, in reality, the Loop is just a shitty cab tunnel designed to financially and physically block local mass transit projects, while the Hyperloop is just bullshit vaporware designed to financially and politically block intercity mass transit projects.

[-] xantoxis@lemmy.world 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Even though I thought the tunnel thing and the train thing were both either vaporware or useless, I have to admit that this fooled me, I am one of your people who thought they were related

[-] ericisshort@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

I’m so dumb that even after I read their comment, I still thought they were related until your admission made me reread their comment.

[-] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 14 points 11 months ago

As a Vegas dweller, I'm particularly pissed at this whole thing because we're CONSTANTLY hearing "Well there's lots of subterranean caves and stuff, so a subway or underground structures (away from the scorching heat) would be unfeasible."

...but here we are with a stupid freaking Tesla-pipe that could have had rail cars...

Clearly the city planning here is just one big investor rug-pull on the residents. After this "Loop", "The Sphere" and their compulsive need to put like 5 more mega stadiums in the middle of the city in the middle of the desert.

And all working-class residents get out of all this is clogged freeways and $300 nosebleed tickets from Ticketmaster.

[-] Lianodel@ttrpg.network 7 points 11 months ago

Yeah. I also thought that the tunnels were too small for a subway (because one of The Boring Company's "innovations" is to drive costs down by digging smaller, shittier, and more dangerous tunnels using existing technology). However, there are subways in London that have even slightly smaller tunnels. You could absolutely lay down some tracks in there and have a functional subway. Giving it to Tesla to run a taxi lane for who knows how long was just a choice.

Also, from what I found out, the Loop is going to continue to fuck over the residents, because the expansions are going to have WAY higher fares. I think right now, the Loop is $4.50 for a day pass. As a point of comparison, a New York subway ticket is $2.90, so one round trip would be more expensive than a day pass. That makes the Loop sound great! ...until you realize the prices are kept artificially low to make it seem that way. Future plans for Loop service would cost upwards of $12 a ride outside of the convention center and resorts.

Also, as an aside, something I don't think gets brought up enough is that the Loop proves that Tesla's self-driving cars are a scam. Even on a close course, indoors, built to whatever specs Tesla could possibly want, the cars need human drivers.

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[-] Gerula@lemmy.world 101 points 11 months ago

Hyoerloop is not a scam just because The con man proposed it with the intent of stopping a high speed rail road project.

It's a scam also because:

  • the idea is not his. It's 100 years old and has been tackled by other before him.
  • it's impossible to be build from the technical point of view.
  • even if you do manage to miraculously built it it won't be economically feasible.
  • in the lasts years it's starting to be obvious that if it's backed by Musk it's a scam in some degree, shape or form. (see also Solar Cities, Tesla, The Loop and the Boring company, etc.)
[-] ExLisper@linux.community 12 points 11 months ago

it’s impossible to be build from the technical point of view. even if you do manage to miraculously built it it won’t be economically feasible.

I don't think you can say any of this until you actually put some money into it and check. Technology improves all the time and with it economics of such project. They didn't really try to build any actual routes. They just tried to do some prototypes and check current feasibility. I don't see this as a scam or a bad thing at all. No public money went into this.

[-] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 24 points 11 months ago

A very long evacuated tube hundreds or thousands of miles long - too long to ever be actively defended - is itself fundamentally untenable. There are US states where every "welcome to ___" sign is shot up with holes. You don't think people will take potshots at this thing?

Even if you somehow made it armoured and immune to small arms (this would be the largest armoured thing ever constructed), it would never make any sense over cutting edge high speed rail that doesn't require an evacuated tube.

This all comes straight from first principles. To change this, any number of fantastical technologies would need to be invented (maybe the tube can be made of vibranium?).

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

What I always thought was the worst part about the idea is pressure equalization in the event of an eventual cabin seal failure.

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[-] ExLisper@linux.community 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, that's why we don't have any thousands mile long tubes transporting dangerous substances. Oh, wait. We do! What happens when someone shoots a gun at them? They go to jail! (look up Daniel Carson Lewis of Livengood).

In your theory, why can't the same laws protect 'railway tubes' that protect oil and gas pipelines? Why terrorist don't shoot guns at pipelines all the time? Why don't terrorist jump on high speed rail tracks and sabotage them? Where I live there's 5000 km of high speed tracks that are not "actively defended". There's just a fence. Big rock could take out a train. Why do you think no one ever attacked it but everyone would be shooting at hyperloop pipes for fun?

Oil pipelines are often buried underground, they can have up to 60'' in diameter. Hyperloop pipe is about 90'' in diameter. It could be feasible to put it underground. I'm not saying it's a good idea or bad idea. I'm just saying that some guy commenting on a blog is not a good reason not to try. Get enough of good engineers to work on it for a while and you will know if it's feasible or not. That's what they did. I think it was a good thing to try.

[-] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 13 points 11 months ago

Yeah, that's why we don't have any thousands mile long tubes transporting dangerous substances.

None of those are vacuum tubes. This is nonsense.

What happens when someone shoots a gun at them?

They leak. Literally all the time. They keep working. This won't.

I think it was a good thing to try.

Okay well you got there eventually.

[-] sir_reginald@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

I'm just saying that some guy commenting on a blog is not a good reason not to try.

The good reason not to try is that bullet trains have proved working perfectly in other parts of the world. Sure, they would be slower than an hypothetical hyperloop but they are a working technology that would help alleviate the transportation problem.

Why invest in a project that might lead nowhere?

I'm not anti experimentation, by any means. It's just that as the article says, the hyperloop was proposed when a bullet train was being discussed by local politicians.

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[-] jonne@infosec.pub 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm assuming it's probably technically possible, just ridiculously expensive to build and maintain, with way less throughput than a train.

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[-] gens@programming.dev 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

No, it's just not viable. Just maintaining the vacuum is hard and takes a lot of energy. Keeping it from imploding onto the high speed train is also very hard.

It does not need experimenting, it is known already.

It is and always was a scam (or just simple stupidity, or both).

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[-] filister@lemmy.world 96 points 11 months ago

Don't forget the "Hyperloop" in Las Vegas, which is just a tunnel where Teslas are driving people around. IMO that's the stupidest and the least efficient use of this tunnel.

The cars are not even self-driving, and mind you this is a closed system and easier to implement self-driving. So far with his self-driving copium, and robo taxis bullshit.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 37 points 11 months ago

That's more about Elon hating mass public transportation. Probably because it involves being close to poor people.

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Don't forget the "Hyperloop" in Las Vegas, which is just a tunnel where Teslas are driving people around.

Isn't that The Loop, not a Hyperloop?

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

whatever it is, its a human barbecue waiting to happen with how tight and coffinlike the tunnel is from what i've seen of videos.

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[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

this is a closed system and easier to implement self-driving

Lol, they tried and it didn't work well, even in a closed system. There was a whistleblower among the drivers a while ago. They were officially in the cars just to keep an eye of things but in reality they had to take over constantly, and they all had contracts that tried to keep them from talking about it. Oh yeah and they got scripts they had to follow if passengers asked questions about Musk or the project. 😄

Edit: here's some articles:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/28/read-the-script-every-driver-for-elon-musks-las-vegas-loop-must-learn/

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tunnels-boring-company-tesla-drivers-las-vegas-techcrunch-2021-7?op=1

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[-] takeda@lemmy.world 56 points 11 months ago

The moment he proposed it, but was not interested in implementing it and let others use that idea, was a clear sign that he himself didn't believe in it.

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[-] witx@lemmy.world 51 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

During the peak of his fame I always thought this was a money laundering scheme from Musk. Only recently I've learned about the (not so much) theory that it was all an effort to screw with high speed train.

[-] drdabbles@lemmy.world 48 points 11 months ago

Going to run a turbofan in a vacuum chamber for propulsion and use air bearings to float on the surface. Like any of it ever made sense from day one. Fever dreams of an idiot.

[-] plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.org 35 points 11 months ago

Yes. Adam something pointed this out two years ago: https://youtu.be/CQJgFh_e01g

[-] pizzazz@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I remember when thunderf00t dunked on this idiocy like, 10 years ago or something.

[-] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 34 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I fully believe the accusations that Musk only proposed the Hyperloop to derail the California High Speed Rail project because an actual high speed rail service poses a serious threat to his car sales. The entire point was to overpromise and deliver absolutely nothing while sucking funds away from projects that actually stand a chance of replacing cars.

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[-] n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 11 months ago

Musk is a scam artist, founder my fucking ass

[-] yamanii@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

The hyperloop was my wake up call that he wasn't a good person, it felt like every reporter became dumb overnight to buy what he was saying.

[-] blazera@kbin.social 24 points 11 months ago

Folks be thinking air resistance doesnt exist

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 72 points 11 months ago

There wasn't going to be any air resistance. They were just going to build a vacuum chamber 1000 times larger than the biggest one ever engineered, then contain it in a thin metal tube snaking hundreds of miles across the heat of the California desert. So simple. /s

[-] Thorry84@feddit.nl 47 points 11 months ago

Good thing California is geological stable, otherwise it would never have worked.... /s

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[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago

If you are ever in LA, you should take a drive around SpaceX campus and see the "Hyperloop prototype" they built outside(don't get out of the car, Hawthorne is a run down industrial zone and not the safest place)

There is nothing that shatters the illusion of Musk's genius faster than seeing that sad, short gas pipeline looking thing on an run down street next to their overflowing employee garage.

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[-] derpgon@programming.dev 22 points 11 months ago

Plain old subway does the job better, cheaper, and faster.

[-] Toribor@corndog.social 8 points 11 months ago

My imaginary train is even faster.

[-] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 8 points 11 months ago

Literally a snail is faster by virtue of actually existing.

[-] thorbot@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

In other news, water was always fucking wet. World shocked.

[-] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

i mean news flash and shit, but you can't make a good product at this point under capitalism. there isn't a single product on the market, in any category, that is not a scam. Enshittification won capitalism and the game is over.

[-] PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

IDK man my toaster oven works pretty well

[-] Wogi@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

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[-] AzureInfinity@leminal.space 15 points 11 months ago

The underlying idea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vactrain has been tried many times, but its simply too expensive and fragile for real-world use. A single earthquake can cripple it.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Important to say, tried many times AFTER being conceived over 100 years ago.

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[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

Thank you! This has not been said nearly enough.

[-] thorbot@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

It’s been said a lot. Since the first day it was proposed.

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[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

Thunderf00t

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this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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