Ask Slashdot: What Would Happen If a Hyperloop Train Failed?

dryriver writes: I've been following Elon Musk's Hyperloop initiative with great interest. The idea of getting from one city to another at 700 MPH without having to suffer through an airport and all that jazz is revolutionary. I'm glad that somebody is trying to innovate in the area of land travel. My question though: When conventional trains going at much slower speeds derail or crash, the result is often serious injuries or deaths. What happens if something goes wrong with a 700 MPH Hyperloop train/pod or with part of the track? Would a Hyperloop accident at that speed even be survivable?

Comments

Re:Plane crashes are seldom fatal

[ranton]

Worst case scenario is everyone dies, which isn't much different than a plane crash.

Evidently you aren't aware that 95.7% of surviving an accident in a plane.

What part of my post makes you think I'm not aware how safe plan travel is? I said the worst case scenario is everyone dies, which is absolutely true of plane crashes. I also went on to say that planes have plenty of fail safes which allow for managed failures. Did you read my whole post? The entire point was that planes are just as inherently dangerous as the Hyperloop but don't end up being very dangerous in practice because of good engineering and operations.