Elon Musk Admits He Is Too Busy To Build Hyperloop 253
DavidGilbert99 writes "It sounded like the future — a 600mph train taking people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just 30mins. In fact it sounded like a future too good to be true. And so it seems to have proven. As Alistair Charlton at IBTimes reports, Elon Musk, the man behind PayPal, Tesla and Space X has admitted that Hyperloop is a step too far and he should never have mentioned it in the first place — 'I think I shot myself in the foot by ever mentioning the Hyperloop. I'm too strung out.' Oh well, let's hope SpaceX works out a bit better ... " Considering that SpaceX has already sent materials to the ISS and retrieved the capsule, it seems to have worked out pretty well so far.
Elon Musk... (Score:5, Interesting)
I get the feeling that if we had about a dozen Elon Musks we would be living in the 2010's version we see in 40 year old sci-fi films...
Ok, the Hyperloop is a bit too much (for now), but the work he's done with Tesla and SpaceX is amazing. And don't forget he had PayPal back when it was a good thing!
Re:There are no NIMBYs in space... (Score:4, Interesting)
If they can build a oil pipeline I fail to see how this is any different.
Besides the entire middle of the country is nearly empty, go check it out on google earth.
Too busy for a pipe dream! (Score:2, Interesting)
NEVER!
I think the reality is few people would like to strap themselves into a coffin and fly down a tube at 4000 mph considering that we can't even prevent trains from crashing in the 21st century. I mean think of how ridiculous that trains actually crash? The one in Spain crashed because it was going to fast around the corner because the driver was texting on his phone. Why would there not be simply some mechanical/electrical switch that triggers the train to slow down automatically approaching sharp corners?
I mean mankind wants to build cars that drives themselves, but we haven't figured out how to make stuff that can only drive on a set of rails safe and autonomous. Why the hell do we even have Train engineers when the source of most train crashes is human failure? Hell we even have planes that can land themselves on auto pilot and I think the physics and technology involve in landing a flying object is significantly more complicated than trying to control something stuck on a set of rails.
So I can only imaging how much humans could screw up something as simple as a capsule being fired down a tube.
I am sure that technically this is a very feasible transportation solution, but lets figure out how to stop trains from crashing into each other or running off the rails because they are going to fast FIRST before we string the planet together with tubes.
Re:High speed rail (Score:4, Interesting)
No, it is not. For flights you have to get there an hour or more in advance, they are chronically late or canceled and you can't get up and walk around during it.
Go someplace they have HSR and check it out.
People travel by air because they don't have HSR available to them.
Re:Too busy for a pipe dream! (Score:4, Interesting)
Sadly, this is an example of unions run amok. Trains don't need drivers. It's entirely feasible to automate them. Look at all the automated airport shuttle trains. But in Spain, there's a union, and they make damn sure there's a driver on every train, and unfortunately, they don't police their own members so we get incompetents who cause fatal wrecks because they can't be bothered to pay attention to their meaningless makework job.
Unions have their place, but that one is a poster child for Fox News to point to. They should be ashamed.