Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Is a Political Manifesto, Not Just a Tech Trick | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Is a Political Manifesto, Not Just a Tech Trick

nymag.com

13 pointswallflower4 comments

It is primarily a political manifesto, as he presents it as an alternative (cheaper, faster to build, faster at moving people) to CA's HSR project.

However, in my view, there's nothing that makes Hyperloop and CA's already started HSR project mutually exclusive. Hyperloop just isn't a valid alternative. It does sound awesome, though, and it should be built, too, because - why not? Its cost to build is low enough that private investment and a public private partnership to get it to share rights of way (where necessary / convenient) with HSR, to even share stations... I mean Hyperloop could be conceived of as the express line from LA-SF - a complementary technology, not an alternative. Even if we had Hyperloop, there are still a number of great arguments for having HSR too. And the fact is, we don't have Hyperloop, it's a completely untested, unproven technology. We do have (a detailed plan, approval, and some funding) for HSR. So we should build HSR, check out Hyperloop, and if it's actually feasible we should do it too, and connect them.

My understanding of the logic behind it is that HSR will begin by building a short link between two unimportant destinations at great expense; Musk is trying to upend that idea by building a longer, more useful link between two great destinations.

You are right to say that comparison of LA-SF Hyperloop vs. LA-SF HSR is unfair; we should be comparing LA-SF Hyperloop to Fresno-Bakersfield HSR. For both projects, these would be their respective first stages.

I disagree about a few things you said... first - that Bakersfield and Fresno are unimportant. Each has a population of around 1 million. (Bakersfield city limits has 362k, but the metro area is nearly 1 million.) That's pretty significant.

So - why compare these things? We can have both, especially if Hyperloop can be done for so little capital and so quickly. Even if we got it, though, it would not replace what CA HSR is going to provide. It would be the express line. It has no city center terminus in either LA or SF. Rather than have to take BART or something from the Hyperloop terminus to downtown SF, why not have special cars in the SF CA HSR station that go straight to the Hyperloop terminus - in the same car - one that is designed to seamlessly be transferred from a HSR car onto the Hyperloop. It would make the Hyperloop more useful and cool.

As a disenchanted California resident, I'm of the opinion that there is no way that Hyperloop could be built within the current California regulatory climate for anything close to the cost he suggests, if at all. But short of trying it, this is hard to prove or even debate.

So instead I'd like to ask: regardless of whether California is possible, where would the _best_ place be to implement a a project of this sort? Australia? China? India? Canada has a number of cities a reasonable distance apart that could be served by a single coast to coast line and existing right-of-ways. Could this 'fly' there?

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