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Comment by nakedrobot2 | Hacker News Reader

Travelling in any kind of tunnel is no more claustrophobic than this is it?

The passenger compartment mockups indicate there won't be enough room to sit upright. I'm sure the seats will make this comfortable for people of average stature who aren't afflicted with claustrophobia, but there will be much less room than tunnels that accommodate e.g. upright humans or subway trains.

Why worry initially about a disorder that only affects 5–7% of people. Fix the transportation problem for a large majority of people first, anyone else still has existing transportation as an option.

Comfort is proportional to room, there are plenty more than 7% of the population that would refuse to ride in a windowless box they can't even sit upright in.

Remember there are two passenger compartment mockups, this is the smaller one we are referring to: http://i.space.com/images/i/000/031/716/i02/hyperloop-passen...

Unscientifically I'd bet less than 25% of people would be willing to ride in that for more than 10 minutes, much less 30-40.

Strap on an Oculus, and simulate a train car. Or, project windows onto the interiors. (Since we're talking future technology)

Yes I expect every visible interior surface would have display capability. A popular mode would be the view outside the tube, which could be constructed from fixed external cameras, and wouldn't have to be precisely "live" anyway. Some masochists might prefer the view inside the tube, which could be prerecorded or even animated.

"The maximum width is 4.43 ft (1.35 m) and maximum height is 6.11 ft (1.10 m)."

Yeah, that's a little bit more claustrophobic than your average underground train.

But less claustrophobic than sitting in a car.

Cars have windows and stuff.

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