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Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

I've got confidence in them too. I think internet commenters are far too quick to overlook the fact that Musk is not going to push forward a venture like this without loads of research from a team of really smart people. It's not like it's just the one Elon with a fantasy about tunnels. It'd start with a bunch of talented people brainstorming and then, early in the process, they'd surely be speaking with really knowledgeable people who know the industry and pitfalls.

If smart and motivated teams can't do something, can anyone?

With something like soil, maybe they figure the technology will be useful even if it only services projects with easy terrain and environments and avoids areas with swamps.

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> Musk is not going to push forward a venture like this without loads of research from a team of really smart people. It's not like it's just the one Elon with a fantasy about tunnels. It'd start with a bunch of talented people brainstorming and then, early in the process, they'd surely be speaking with really knowledgeable people who know the industry and pitfalls.

Actually, the story is that Musk made it up on a whim while stuck in L.A. traffic, founded the company the same day and bought a used drilling rig which started digging in the Tesla parking lot.

OK, it'd start with a user frustrated by a problem, then go to brainstorming with colleagues/employees/peers/friends and then go to industry experts and hires with direct experience. ;)

Really the main difference is that someone without money and follow through would've just sat in traffic and complained.

Follow through = billions in the bank and oodles of connections

You're implying that Musk's "follow through" is a result of his money and connections, when the reverse is true.

Yes, of course, now that he has money, connections, and a powerful reputation, that makes it easier for him to do things. But he created the money, connections, and power by being able to do things even when he had none of them.

Obviously that eases the process but some people follow through and some don't. Some have big dreams and some just invest for themselves only. I can think of loads of rich people who aren't out there starting companies to push forward space exploration, car technology, tunnelling machines, etc. He has pretty serious runs on the board now.

Same as the Hyperloop story. Just that the Hyperloop story wasn't true, it was really conceived by Et3.

And in general - entrepreneur "origin" stories are often bullshit - useful to get go PR, that's it.

>the Hyperloop story wasn't true, it was really conceived by Et3

You might want to look at them closer. Hyperloop and ET3 are very different from a technical perspective, even though they're superficially similar.

ET3 tubes need 1/1,000,000th of an atmosphere to mitigate the sonic boom, and that makes the pumping requirements exceedingly hard (requiring multi-stage pumping with turbo- and cryo-pumps). That also means ET3 has a higher top speed, assuming you can secure the right-of-way to satisfy the minimum curve radius.

Hyperloop tubes use 1/1,000th of an atmosphere, chosen because it's the lowest pressure achievable with purely mechanical pumping. They then route air around the pod, allowing them to approach the speed of sound despite the fact that air has to speed up as it squeezes around the pod (aka the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantrowitz_Limit).

So ET3's pumps see basically the same differential pressure, but 1,000x more volume needs to be pumped per m^3 of air that leaks in. This means the Hyperloop requires less pumping power, fewer pump units, uses only cheap mechanical pumps, and can tolerate more air leakage than ET3. This is a big win, since the tube is the expensive part.

Yes, smart people are magic. Doesn't matter how much sense the idea itself makes, one only needs to ship it off to those 'motivated talented people', they will figure everything out.

Indeed they are. As any experience with anything remotely more complicated than building a cube out of Lego bricks should tell you. For any practical problem there are many ways to address it that may not seem obvious in the first five seconds of looking at it.

machines heavier than air will never fly, obviously.

let's judge the outcome - or lack of it - when they fold or succeed.

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