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Comment by pixie_ | Hacker News Reader

This is Elon's Segway - unproven, hyped up technology. This always happens with successful people/companies - they feel like they can do anything and can't fail - throwing rationality into the wind. I love Elon, but this is not worth his time at the moment.

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The man publish a 40 pages technical document and you dismiss it with a comment. At least provide a single argument

No prototype - nothing even remotely close to a prototype. At least rockets and electric cars had some basis in reality before Elon started working on them.

High-speed trains don't have a basis for reality? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen

The hyperloop is not a high-speed train.

The Space-X rocket isn't a rocket.

The Tesla Roadster isn't an electric car.

See what I did there?

Yeah, I see that you make no sense ...

Those two statements are however false. As is calling the hyperloop a train. If it was a (fast) train, Musk likely would not have called it a fifth mode of transportation.

This isn't like any other high speed train in existence. The rail cars have more in common with a vtol jet than the train you linked.

What leads you to believe that Musk is incapable of building an entirely new technology?

I believe Musk is perfectly capable - just as Dean Kamen is a capable, successful inventor.

I don't think Elon Musk is being irrational about the Hyperloop. I think he understands the constraints on his time. SpaceX had 3 failures before successfully reaching orbit.

If theres one about Elon Musk is that believes not only that he can fail, but that that failure is the most likely outcome. He has said this in interviews before.

I think you're being a bit unfair here. First, the Segway is now entrenched in our society, thus it's lived up to a lot of its hype (though not all haha). Second, your main complaint seems to be that he's talking about it before showing a prototype. You're being an unnecessarily harsh critic IMO if you require that each idea presented to you must have a physical component.

Agree with the criticism of the above comment, but I think "the Segway is now entrenched in our society" is a very bold (and unfounded, IMO) claim.

I've set to see a single one in the flesh. The only ones I've seen in photographs are tourist gimmicks. Granted, I've never travelled to North America, but I do live in a developed western country.

> This is Elon's Segway - unproven, hyped up technology.

Hyperloop was definitely overhyped and the specific targetting of California HSR -- a comparatively near-term project using existing, well-established technology that involves deep transit connections throughout the populated parts of the State to support the main HSR corridors was a nonsensical part of that hype.

That said, the technology is interesting, and at worst Musk investing in developing a prototype will be a learning opportunity. We need more people with Musk's resources investing in longer-range, novel technologies.

It seems reusing his current tech and knowledge though.

I don't see how an average person can lose if Musk attempts to build something for his own money. And I don't understand why does it bother you.

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