Slashdot Mirror
The First Hyperloop System Will Connect Passengers From Dubai To Abu Dhabi In Twelve Minutes (techcrunch.com)
Hyperloop One has announced today that it would build the first commercial hyperloop transportation system from Dubai to Abu Dhabi -- a trip that would take only twelve minutes. TechCrunch reports: The journey is 99 miles (159.4 km) long and normally takes about two hours by car but H1 promises it would take a mere 12 minutes in the hyperloop. H1 is partnering with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to evaluate the feasibility of building this system in greater Dubai and the UAE and the announcement follows the next stage of development for the company, which is gearing up for its "Kitty Hawk" moment early next year when H1 will test a full-scale prototype of its system in the Nevada desert. It's also part of the company's next stage of progress in Dubai. Last August H1 co-founder Shervin Pishevar hinted the first hyperloop would be built overseas and the company announced in October it received $50 million in funding from DP World Group of Dubai, the third-largest ports operator in the world, to build a hyperloop system to move cargo throughout the country and the world. You can watch H1's new video that shows their "vision for the future of mobility" here.
Funny how the headline gets "will connect passengers" from "evaluate the feasibility".
Then again, those guys do have shitloads of money and very little in the way of restraint when it comes to spending it...
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
In other words,
Musk is excited about the opportunities afforded by middle eastern countries that build their economies around forced unpaid labor. "it wasn't that big of a stretch compared to the capitalist system we're all used to," Musk was quoted as laughing to himself, as he swam around in his Scrooge McDuckian vault
This does seem like a more sensble test track than LA to SF. At least land is cheap (mostly desert), power is cheap (mostly oil and solar) and labour is cheap (mostly slave).
But only 5 minutes before passengers get impatient and complain they're not there already.
I stole this Sig
I wasn't on Slashdot when all the hyperloop craze started and died, so I guess I'll just post the question I posted at multiple blogs and communities back at the time:
Why are people so hyped about this? Why? What's the point?
The whole thing is unpractical, unproven, dependant on technology that does not exist, and it's barely bettter at some aspects to existing technology while being so incredibly worse in several other aspects that I don't even know how this whole thing even started and didn't end up as a Simpson's monorail joke to be long forgotten.
And tech blogs and magazines keep bringing this up every now and then. It was completely ridiculous the level of hype for this on blogs like Gizmodo and several big tech publications. Tech reporters specially seem so fascinated by the whole ridiculous idea that I always feel that I must me missing something. But up to this point, no one explained it to me, so there you go.
For the original hyperloop concept you'd need a near vacuum tube running all of it's extention as well as some braking mechanism that has not been divised just yet, closer to how pneumatic tubes for mail worked in the past.
The project has now been adapted to use maglev technology (by some of the companies developing it), but the near vacuum tube is still in research.
The tech can only work in an efficient way to traverse very long stretches of flat land without any interruptions. You need to reach theoretical top speeds for it to make sense over other ideas.
In almost all proposed scenarios I've seen to date it just makes way more sense to just adopt any of the currently available maglev train technology... japanese, chinese, european, doesn't matter. The tech is ready, it works well, it's efficient and proven.
So, why the heck are so many people putting money and attention to research into something that even at the best scenario, will have several disadvantages over Maglev, and will be far more limited than it? Wouldn't it be far better to use all this money to fund the construction of a maglev rail in the US or wherever?
I've heard all sorts of justifications so far, but none of them made any sense to me just yet.
Oh, for maglev you need to have uninterruptible flat land which generates lots of land disputes and whatnot. How the f* is hyperloop any better? It also needs tracks just the same, even more, it needs tracks that have to be powered in regular intervals to keep the semi-vacuum state, and the tracks have to be enclosed. It's far worse than MagLev. From the projects I've seen so far, it's a transparent vacuum tube suspended by concrete towers that generates semi-vacuum somehow... wind power with windmills, or solar power, both highly unlikely. It cannot possibly be cheaper to build a suspended transparent robust vacuum tube over concrete pilons in comparison to plain maglev tracks over land. Unless aliens do it. I guess not having to build train stations cheapens the deal, but obviously, this is a flaw, not an advantage. A maglev train that goes from point A to point B without stops would still be cheaper.
It could get faster than MagLev. Sure, this is theoretical, but also at the huge disadvantage of not being able to have several stops, and being limited to the size of whatever diameter the tubes will have. And then there's the matter of acceleration and desceleration. If you are using maglev tracks anyways for hyperloop, it'll just be the same. If it's a vacuum tube alone, it'd depend on the braking system, but my guess would be that you'd still need a good distant to both accelerate and descelerate in a way that is comfortable for people, which kinda defeats the purpose.
It could be great for cargo! Still doesn't make sense. MagLev would probably also be better for cargo, being able to make stops and not being limited to an enclosed space.
I just.... I just don't know. I can imagine there is some advantage to it, but not enough to justify adopting any other readily available technology.
Dude, I'd hate to be stuck behind you in traffic.
1/8 G? That's slower than your grandparents fucking. 0-60 in 20+ seconds. Slower than a 3 cylinder Geo Metro with 4 fat people crammed in it, going up a steep hill, against the wind, with a slipping transmission.
Stomp that throttle, your drink won't spill, use a lid.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Sounds feasible in a place where extreme wealthy people can build winter village on top of a skyscraper in the desert and have lots of snazzy business jets. However, can hyperloop scale up to move lots of people like high speed rail in Europe and Japan? Decades ago SST was going to be the primary transport but it never could scale up like subsonic transport. Latest Boeing and Airbus transports don't go any higher or faster than the 707 and DC-8 though much better and safer airplanes.
mfwright@batnet.com
Can a hyperloop track be as simple as lengths of standard concrete pipe? Obviously alignment would be critical, but I'm wondering if the track could be relatively cheap.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."