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China Suspects Its 'Car-Eating,' Traffic-Straddling Bus Is a Total Scam (qz.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the too-good-to-be-true dept.

China's "Transit Elevated Bus" or TEB-1 made headlines last year for its futuristic design that let it straddle two lanes of traffic, allowing cars to pass under it. Now, that very bus is the focus of an investigation. According to Quartz, "police in Beijing announced that it had started an investigation into the company behind the TEB for alleged illegal fundraising." From the report: More than 30 people associated with Huaying Kailai, an online financing platform that has been selling an investment product to raise money from individual investors to develop the bus, have been held, said Beijing's Dongcheng district police bureau in a statement (link in Chinese) on microblogging site Weibo. The statement added that the police is working to recover funds from the firm, and advised TEB investors to report their complaints to local police stations. Huaying Kailai couldn't be reached for comment. The number listed on its website is invalid and a message to the email provided bounced back. Bai Zhiming, who runs Huaying Kailai and is also chief executive of TEB Technology Development, a Beijing-based company that purchased the patent for the elevated bus, was among those detained, according to the police statement. Bai bills himself as "the father of the TEB" on Weibo. Days after the Qinghuangdao government announced the TEB track's demolition, Bai told Chinese media that the bus would be relocated to another Chinese city.

59 comments

  1. Flost tosp by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Looks like somebody didn't bribe the right people. Schoolboy error, that.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Flost tosp by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yep. This could never happen here.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:Flost tosp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're going to write American's, why didn't you also write scam's?

    3. Re: Flost tosp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guys calm down. At least according to TFS "the police is working."
      We can rest easy knowing these scammer's will being brought justice.

    4. Re: Flost tosp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In China, if you don't grease the right palms your idea will be declated an illegal scam even if it's 100% real.
      Of course, this is a scam, plain and simple.

    5. Re:Flost tosp by Megol · · Score: 1

      It is illegal to take and give bribes in China. While it is deeply ingrained in society making it hard to root out the Chinese government severely punish this crime - some are executed.

      Scams happen everywhere BTW.

    6. Re:Flost tosp by aberglas · · Score: 1

      The only ones executed are those that did not pay the right bribes to the right people.

    7. Re:Flost tosp by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      The people executed were political opponents of Xi Jinping. Their arrests and executions had very little to do with "corruption".

      Xi's term in office ends in 2022. By then, he will have completed the purge, stuffed the central committee with his cronies, and should have no problem getting rubber stamp approval to extend his term "for the good of the nation".

    8. Re:Flost tosp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just like Trump is planning to do right?

    9. Re:Flost tosp by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      What exactly does some shifty business in china have to do with shifty business here?

      You're like that annoying dude in every 100 level class who goes out of his way to come up with some contrarian opinion during a lecture, despite it being totally fucking unrelated to the lecture at hand.

      No one finds that guy interesting or clever -- ever.

    10. Re:Flost tosp by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the link.
      One problem with Capitalism is that crime and corruption are so intrinsic that NO ONE builds a working database to take to the judges to get "prior bad acts" admitted in lawsuits and criminal trials against the 1% who coordinate these crimes.

    11. Re:Flost tosp by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      Well, there is a difference. Trump has his victims buried in the dark of the night, so we don't know about them

    12. Re:Flost tosp by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      Admittedly, I have some regrets about a 100 level class.

      I wasted a boost on a Rogue and almost immediately wished I'd gone with a Druid.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    13. Re:Flost tosp by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      well since the nerf(s) to quad kiting, druids are not quite as awesome.. though having handy access to ports would be a plus (not to mention on-demand SOW)

  2. More stories about Kardashians please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't want to read about a stupid chinaman's elevated bus.

  3. Welcome to the rough and tumble world of China by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 2

    The financial markets are a joke and there is zero transparency into the banking and investment banking businesses. If you know the right people, you ride their coattails to riches (which you quickly slip out of the country into banks in first world countries along with your corrupt partners in crime, the very government officials who are supposed to be monitoring and regulating the industry). Otherwise, you may as well be playing roulette.

    Enjoy the ride.

    1. Re:Welcome to the rough and tumble world of China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So...just like the US, eh?

    2. Re:Welcome to the rough and tumble world of China by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      So...just like the US, eh?

      No. The opposite of the US. China has the world's biggest trade surplus, yet the value of their currency is falling. That reason is that much of the surplus is leaking out of the country into offshore investments. China has implemented capital controls, but those are easy to work around, and actually increase the desire to get money out before restrictions get even worse.

      America has the world's biggest deficits, Yet the dollar is rising. A big reason is that America is the biggest destination for investment, despite having perverse tax laws that discourage capital inflows.

    3. Re:Welcome to the rough and tumble world of China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the last year the US$ has risen a whopping 1.5% vs the RMB. Hardly anything to write home about. US is increasing interest rates, good for the dollar, China is experiencing the biggest slowdown for 3 decades, tends to be bad for a currency. Yet only 1.5% change. http://www.macrotrends.net/132... take a look at how the US dollar has done against other currencies.

    4. Re:Welcome to the rough and tumble world of China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That should be read as "China has allowed the RMB to fall against the dollar." Or are you the one guy that doesn't know that that is the most heavily manipulated currency relationship on Earth.

  4. Clearance by denbesten · · Score: 2

    Pretty much anything that depends on others to stay in their lane is doomed to failure. Investors not considering this will get the results they deserve. Better take the losses now then after a car takes out a "leg".

    1. Re:Clearance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For now. But in the future when all cars are self driving and they are networked, this sort of thing would actually have a chance of working
      Perhaps in a dedicated line, such as a Bike or HOV Lane where clearance of vehicles could be assured

    2. Re:Clearance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty much anything that depends on others to stay in their lane is doomed to failure.

      Not if it is large enough.

      Trams have been in wide use for a long time and depends on cars staying out of their way.
      It works. Drivers know better than to get in their way.

      If it wasn't vaporware this "bus" would have worked too. If you get stuck under it and have to change lanes, just slow down and let it pass or speed up to get past it and you are free.
      It requires a little more planning but isn't really different from dealing with other traffic.

    3. Re:Clearance by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      Drivers get confused or misled by the silliest little things. Care is taken to design roads so that drivers do not get confused (like ensuring tunnel facades are perpendicular to the road even if the object over the road isn't), or to mislead drivers on purpose (like visually narrowing a road to make drivers slow down). Sometimes a new road opens with a confusing element, with a lot of accidents happening there as a consequence, until the situation is remedied. And on top of all that, some drivers do the craziest things if they are about to miss their exit.

      So yeah, a bus that requires drivers to adjust speed to catch an exit they cannot see, while driving in a tunnel where the walls themselves move giving them a very confusing sense of speed, sounds like a great idea. If you're an ambulance chaser, that is.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    4. Re:Clearance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And conveniently, the chinese ambulances have facilities for rapid, mobile organ harvesting.

      Just in case

  5. Doesn't seem to be a complete scam by bongey · · Score: 1

    They actually built something and installed track. A complete scam would be nothing pretty pictures.

    1. Re:Doesn't seem to be a complete scam by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

      Pretty pictures may get you the first round of funding, when that dries up it's not too hard to lay a few tracks to show how 'serious' you are for the next round of suckers / investors.

    2. Re:Doesn't seem to be a complete scam by Megol · · Score: 1

      You just gave the perfect illustration why scammers would build something! Take a token from the "investments" and build something (a model most often or in this case a track segment) - suddenly people thinking like you is interested in investing as the project "can't" be a scam.

      Advanced scamming operations tend to produce multiple models/parts as time goes by with no intention to make whatever they claim they are doing.

  6. Seems they have much bigger problem by bongey · · Score: 1

    With people overloading vehicles. I thought seeing a f-150 in the US with 10 feet of pallets was crazy, Asia says that ain't shit. http://en.rocketnews24.com/201...

  7. Not very smart by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    For a country that ostensibly wants to be the preeminent world power, they sure can be dumb. Who would fall for that thing in the first place?

    1. Re:Not very smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who would fall for that thing in the first place?

      The same morons that think the hyperloop will actually be a thing.

    2. Re:Not very smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And cold fusion. (It takes more nuclear reactors to generate the tritium for cold fusion that could possibly be replaced with the fusion generated.)

    3. Re:Not very smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's what's not smart: dumb clueless little people like yourself who think that this was the combined intellectual effort of the whole of China. It was mainly ONE guy and his small business, trying to cash in. And funnily, in this endevour he actually got farther than most of you yanks do when you're trying to get that lifetime payout.

    4. Re:Not very smart by jandersen · · Score: 1

      For a country that ostensibly wants to be the preeminent world power, they sure can be dumb. Who would fall for that thing in the first place?

      It is called being willing to take a risk; a lot of the things we now consider obvious parts of everyday life, will have been considered frivolous, hare-brained schemes initially. Computers, for example: didn't the CEO of Digital once, famously, say that he could see the need for perhaps 2 or 3 computers to be built, globally? The very idea that they would be owned by everyone and used mostly for idle play would have been ridiculed. America became the world leader, at least for a while, by being willing to take a risk and invest in things that might fail.

      That said, though, this particular project does seem like one that could never work - at least in its naive form. Having a cars, bicycles or pedestrians moving freely under a moving bus on stilts doesn't strike me as a good idea; it would require immense self-control and presence of mind from all road-users, qualities you don't find in abundance on the roads. But it might be feasible to have a train system in two layers, with the top and bottom moving independently. Doing it as trains on stilts might even be cheaper than building trainlines in layers tha traditional way.

    5. Re:Not very smart by Megol · · Score: 1

      Eh... Tritium isn't required for fusion reactions.

    6. Re:Not very smart by cjameshuff · · Score: 1

      That claim was messed up in several different ways. Most cold fusion schemes used pure deuterium fuel. The problem with cold fusion is simply that cold fusion doesn't work. The notion that fusion is a scam if it can't produce more tritium than it consumes is an odd one too...the goal is power production, not tritium production. Fuels are typically consumed, tritium is unusual in that the process that consumes it can also produce it.

      And finally, D-T fusion can actually produce excess tritium by breeding it from Li-7, which reacts with a high energy neutron (>2.466 MeV, D-T fusion producing 14.1 MeV neutrons) to produce tritium and a lower energy neutron which can go on to produce more tritium. And even the Li-6 reaction would reduce the overall tritium requirements.

    7. Re:Not very smart by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      And funnily, in this endevour he actually got farther than most of you yanks do when you're trying to get that lifetime payout.

      ..which means they're not as smart as we are, apparently.

    8. Re:Not very smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taJ4MFCxiuo

  8. pot meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was about to say the exact same thing the other poster replied with.
    How is this in any way different to the US.

  9. pot meet kettle again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Were you sleeping for the whole dot com bubble?
    How about the sub prime mortgage scams?
    Plenty of idiots in your own country, and you're supposedly the leaders of the free world with the bestest and brightest.

    1. Re:pot meet kettle again by blindseer · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The USA holds about 5% of the world's population but about 25% of the world's wealth. That makes us idiots?

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    2. Re:pot meet kettle again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yep you temporarily distressed billionare you. How much of that wealth is just a handful of people?
      Being complete dumfucks electing Trump and even nominating Hillary makes you idiots.

    3. Re:pot meet kettle again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://www.thestreet.com/stor... Yay! It's good to finally have confirmation that Australians are smarter than Americans.

    4. Re:pot meet kettle again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How much of that wealth is real, and how much is backed by debt?

    5. Re:pot meet kettle again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2 minutes of conversation would prove to you that Australians are smarter than Americans, hell 3 minutes would prove to you cottage cheese is smarter than Americans

  10. It's not "China's bus" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's just the work of mainly one person and his small company. But of course if you're always thinking of ways to ridicule or blame China for something, then you can just find one bad Chinese person, and then blame the whole country. The Americans in particular are very keen on this.

    1. Re:It's not "China's bus" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the hell do you mean "just one bad Chinese person"? Almost their entire populace is made up of greedy, selfish, immoral scammers. This is just one more case to pile on the heap of shit that comes pouring out of that country. Even the minority of Chinese who aren't like that are getting sick of it. I know this from experience.

      If you try to ignore the plain reality all around you and deny this, you either don't know any Chinese people personally and you're just trying to defend them out of some completely misplaced and delusional internal ideas... or you're Chinese.

    2. Re:It's not "China's bus" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (un)fortunately, even the minority of Americans who aren't greedy selfish immoral scammers will still elect one to be their president. It's in their DNA to be selfish pricks. I've got mine so fuck you is the basis of America's entire 'society'. American's aren't even sick of it, they want more.

  11. even with 1/4 of the wealth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    America Fuck Yea ! We're #27 were #27 !! Average wealth per adult.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re:even with 1/4 of the wealth... by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      mmm. I guess you forget the millions of impoverished immigrants that come here. Do you think, just maybe, that drives the average down?

      I'm glad to see that you would like to limit the influx of poor, illiterate people - especially as automation removes their lawn care, dish washing and taxi driving jobs.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    2. Re:even with 1/4 of the wealth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Europe has no imigrant problems? Or the Mid East or any number of places full of people fleeing wars. You special little snowflake with no idea about the big world outside your little bubble.

  12. I liked the straddle bus. by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    I liked the straddle bus. I found it an interesting and unique concept. It's that weird, out-of-the-box genius ideas the world needs.

    Very disappointed I'll never see it developed.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:I liked the straddle bus. by Cochonou · · Score: 1

      It was more like a straddle tramway anyway, since it runned on rails. However, even if this is a scam, the general concept looked interesting...

  13. What about the people in the cars? by DeAxes · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one who's thinking of what it must be like for the people in the cars? As it's coming up from behind, it's impossible to know what's going on and people will freak out. Just imagine driving and suddenly you're enveloped by something above you, the entire car suddenly dark. It would spike my blood pressure! It should fail on that alone.

    1. Re:What about the people in the cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People who don't understand mirrors and have no situational awareness shouldn't be on the roads anyway. Surely all the construction/news/signs would be enough to let you know about this thing well in advance. You already know about it and it's not even being considered to be built anywhere. Don't know how to drive, you should take this bus.

  14. Really by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

    So are solar paved roads and sidewalks. Bridges with wind turbines, and putting water turbines in water mains.
    My theory is that people make up stuff like this to get funding to study it and if that fails to put it into a book about brilliant ideas for the future.
    AKA see flying cars.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.