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The idea of a vacuum transport tube has been around before Elon Musk. I remember attending colloquium in college where some inventors were trying to get interest in building evacuated tube transport. http://www.et3.com/

Such an approach is built around a medieval model of a city. This vehicle 95% carries its own weight.

What is needed, however, is the implementation of the Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies, or ET3: http://www.et3.com/ . This technology is ecological, safe, scalable, and fast.

The main obstacle is the littleness of the current political and technical leadership, which is stuck firmly in the past centuries.

This guy's been at it for years: http://www.et3.com/

It's the same concept. He's simply been looking for investors. He's got a lot of heart and is passionate about this. He's chased this idea to the ends of the Earth.

On this one, I feel like Elon Musk is just a rich Johnny Come Lately who is stealing Oster's thunder like some high school prom king gone to steal the pretty girl from the guy who wooed her for years and drag her back to his dad's Mustang.

The ET3 website looks like some kind of scam. They are offering to sell licenses for their amazing technology for only $100! I've seen it listed on several articles about Musk's plans, but I suspect that some lazy journalist just googled some shit and found that page.

Does anyone know if Musk actually has a company working on this technology?

The number of killed and injured in traffic accidents is constantly growing in the world. Sociologists talk of a 3rd World War, but on roads this time.

But I brought the topic of roads just to illustrate the embedded AI. The technology exists to create more intelligent transportation systems right now. However, not via adding a small clever box to an existing vehicle.

It would be world. This one, for instance: http://www.et3.com/ , "Space Travel on Earth", 100% safe, 1000 times more ecologically safer, because a car, aircraft or train mostly carry themselves.

.. everything looks like a nail. Perhaps it's time to not evaluate based on results and feedback within a political term. Expecting this unfortunately seems like a pipe dream. http://www.et3.com/ - Evacuated tube transport

Unfortunately, physics is implacable, its laws are not subject to negotiation. Until we find ways to (1) move faster than sound without creating a sonic boom and (2) move faster than sound without spending much more fuel, we will be limited to subsonic travel.

Done. This people behind evacuated tube transport have a solid proposal and patents. I heard they were trying to sell the concept in China.

I think the 9/11 type, or metro attacks threat threat can be realistically eliminated by the schools, universities, etc.

This billions could be invested in building something useful, that creates sustainable jobs, not only in one rich country, but in whole Eurasia, Africa and Americas. Say something like this: http://www.et3.com/

Certainly it is more complicated to organize and to build than a laser gun.

The problem may be that we produce and consume too much energy without a good reason. The are possible negative consequences like unpredictable climate and technical catastrophes.

The nuclear energy is a radical approach, but there are also radical approaches in efficiency, which could be implemented right now. For example this kind of transportation is 100 (!) ties more efficient even than a train: http://www.et3.com/ett.asp . And it can be done, it just needs a will and investment.

Already designed and patented. http://www.et3.com/

Last night, I was discussing how the US will probably be the last to implement a real future-proof clean solution like http://www.et3.com/

[drum roll]

Making money from it, not by actually DOING anything, but simply by acquiring intellectual property rights and then licensing the technology.

Or perhaps, finding a bunch of sucke... er, venture capitalists desparate/stupid enough to believe in a crazy scheme like this, right after the dot-com bust.

This executive summary page really says it all. For example, their financial strategy is:

Our financial strategy is to grow the Company's value through expanding licensing and royalty revenues. We believe that early revenues will come primarily from up front fees paid to the Company by our industrial partners under licensing agreements for the use of pieces of Company intellectual property for product development and sales. In addition, we expect to receive payment for activities supporting these partnerships during product development. We further believe that long-term revenues will flow from royalties received from successful products developed by our customers.

So essentially, they control a few patents and have some trade secrets (as mentioned elsewhere on the page), and they're going to make money by licensing it. They're not actually going to DO any of the work. Somehow, others will magically finance the construction, solve the technical problems, work out all the logistics, operate the system, and maintain it.

They even make an estimate/wish that ETT will "advance" over the next 30 years. Unlikely as that seems, one thing is absolutely certain. Those patents will lapse into the public domain by then, and that would be plenty of time to reverse engineer any ecomonically important trade secrets.

So no, I wouldn't expect to see any tubes erected by ET3. Now or ever. This is just another example of the deep flaws in the patent system.

Dying because you aren't getting enough oxygen in a low pressure environment and dying because you aren't getting enough oxygen in a very low pressure environment don't seem all the different to me.

Of course, the difference is that a plane can dive from 40,000 feet to 10,000 feet in a minute or so, which is quickly enough to save everybody's lives. If you're in an evacuated, subterranean tunnel and your car springs a leak... hmm. According to the FAQ, "Life-support apparatus is a well developed field." So I guess it won't be a problem.

Does this graphic disturb anyone else? As far as I can tell it's effectively saying "lets melt the ice caps and destroy a couple equitorial environments for the sake of generating power". That's a nice environmentally friendly attitude they've got there.