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Comment by https443 | Hacker News Reader

Is public money going toward this? If not, why do you care how a private individual uses their money?

> Is public money going toward this?

Pretty much all the private investment in hyperloops is to get to the point of selling it for public infrastructure projects (it was originally proposed as an alternative specifically to California High Speed Rail), so, while the answer is mostly “no” in the strict present sense of “is”, it's also “yes” in the sense of the intended goal of the projects.

That just sounds like risk-free R&D, where the people's money only goes there once the idea has been proven by someone else, with no loss for the state if it goes nowhere near our interests.

Except in the real world, the “getting ready” from day one isn't just R&D but also propaganda. You counter the propaganda so it doesn't soften the ground for waste of public funds.

Personally, I care because it diverts attention and thrust from developing proven alternatives to air travel, such as HSR. When something that big hinges on a narrow swing in public opinion, and someone starts dangling a pie in the sky idea, the result can be abandonment of the main idea, at the service of an unlikely moonshot by a big ego.

I don't see HSR as a good alternative to air travel in a country as spread out as the US. a proper HSR route for the northeast corridor would be great; it's kind of ridiculous that a plane is the best way to get from boston to DC. when you start looking at traversing entire coasts, it's really hard for a train to compete with air travel. a non-stop flight from seattle to LA takes about two and a half hours, plus all the security nonsense. at 200mph, a train that makes zero stops would take about six hours. once you factor in travel to/from the airport and security, that's actually not too bad, but nonstop train routes are uncommon. the situation is even worse for cross-country flights. NY to LA is about six hours by plane; it would be about fourteen hours on a (highly unlikely) nonstop train.

frankly (as an east-coaster) I would be happy just to see the existing rail lines be price competitive with airlines. I greatly prefer traveling by train, and I would be willing to accept a longer transit time if it were not both slower and more expensive.

Both Europe and China are of comparable size to the US, and they enjoy high speed train since decades ago. It won't replace a NYC-LA trip anytime now, but the coastal corridors and various regional hubs (Texas triangle, lake Michigan, etc) are perfectly sized.

Here is an excellent article that discusses this (surprisingly old) phenomena

http://www.cat-bus.com/2017/12/gadgetbahn/

The problem is some people believe bureaucrats will spend better the money than a private group. So they want their money and give those bureaucrats the power to spend the money and believe someday they will make a revolutionary product for free.

yes there already is public money going towards this, see the contract the boring company has with the Las Vegas convention authority, a public body, and whoops of course it's already a mess.[1]

This is infrastructure, if this ever is going to be a business it's going to be public money, it's not like someone builts a hyperloop on their cow farm.

[1]https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/16/elon-musks-las-vegas-loop-...

Waste is waste.

True, but is waste bad?

In the extreme long term, humans will have died out and everything that was ever done will turn out to have been "waste". That said, I don't feel bad about doing things that make me feel good and/or are interesting. People can do hyperloops if they want.

So, for one, the public definitely has an interest in how you spend your money. That's why it's illegal to buy things like people.

Two, public money is private money. That's what taxes are.

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