Hacker News Reader

Given ADA, would it be even legal for the California government to build this instead of a classic HSR? It's not even about claustrophobics, people in wheelchairs couldn't be serviced at all and obese people would be trouble too.

View on HN

I don't see why they couldn't. You could just leave out one or two rows of seats and have plenty of room for a wheelchair, also extra luggage and package (if no wheelchair was onboard). You could have that in maybe one car out of five or ten, given that a new car arrives every thirty seconds.

From the pictures it looks like able-bodied passengers don't sit upright, so a person in a wheelchair wouldn't fit. Perhaps they could be helped into a seat and then helped out, though.

Serious question BTW, I'm not sure what exactly ADA mandates.

I think it is a pretty fair question, even though I am not entirely sure of what is the definition of minority on this matter. What is the percentage of people that the system should take care of? There are always outliers for which this (or any) transportation will never be a possibility.

Now, I am sure that some variations on the system (have one row with only one chair for obese or no chair to allow people with wheelchair) would increase the % of people that can use the hyperloop.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com