Elon Musk

Which is how 70% of architecture and urban planning works.

sure 70% that sounds totally realistic too

I meant 94% sorry.

To me, it really sounds like a kickstarter project... but from a billionaire.

i mean who knows maybe its revolutionary technology but its so preliminary its p comical to call a press conference abt it

maybe this is the best way to convince someone else to give it a shot idk

LOL "elon musk"

This should keep us occupied for a while: http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

I wasn't scathing about Musk (I am about futurism in general) - if anything, he has a good track record on quixotic tech quests. I hope he's successful with this. I also hope there's a state left that can use it.

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

Knowing how CA politics works (and the CA rail projects are amazingly political), how would you expect a non-arrogant to even get traction with this?

I have no doubt that Musk will solve the Hyperloop technical issues. I very much have doubts about him navigating Sacramento.

I was describing this to my wife today and kept calling it Supertube.

Bad connotations...

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supertrain-1_7696.jpg

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

Musk says the Hyperloop is best for distances of 900 miles. Beyond 900 miles, he thinks you're better off in a supersonic jet.

Lol

I never use my supersonic jet anymore as parking is always a total bitch

I have to say I rather like Elon Musk. He's made a massive pile of money and rather than sitting on it or managing it in mundane ways; he's making risky bets on thinks he's passionate about: Cars, Rockets, vacuum tubes.

Hyperloop seems a bit ridiculous to me, vacuum tube powered trains and trains in evacuated tubes are an old chestnut, almost as old as railways themselves. However, he's built a commercially viable private space programme and a car company* in the last ten years so anything is possible.

*Tesla isn't really a car company it's a power train company and if it is still making cars in 5 years I'll be surprised.

ya i'm kinda ll for crackpot genius billionaires actually doing interesting stuff, up until they become str8 up supervillains obv

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

― wk, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:23 AM

he might do this

is this dude one of the crazy silicon valley libertarian types or is he just beloved by them?

iirc he has liberal tendencies mixed in w the libertarianism

xp I heard him speak and he seemed not crazy and to have some kind of social or at least environmental conscience, unlike the usual libertarian types, but maybe he's just better at hiding it

(I like him too fwiw and right now he seems one of the most likely "crackpot genius billionaires" to solve some hard problems which are overdue for solving, so I hope he carries on with that. Also hoping that one day I'll get to see/read his computer game that appeared in some 8-bit micro type-in listings mag in the 80s)

he's not as bad as some of the other silicon valley libtards, I'll give him that.

nonetheless, this is a stupid proposal

do tell

curious to read a critique that amounts to more than 'hyperlol'

I think it's dumb that he's throwing around numbers when he doesn't even have a working prototype. It just seems like he's hoping to derail the other project. I also think the "open source" thing is pretty silly since it's not like code where an individual can make some kind of improvement and test it out to see if it works. I guess an open source design is an interesting idea after the fact if he actually gets it working and other people want to build his design, but it still seems basically irrelevant.

Didn't he make his fortune with Peter thiel?
I don't know if that is "guilt by association" or "looking better by comparison"

It just seems like he's hoping to derail the other project

^^^

A key part of his criticism of the other rail plan is that it's "more expensive to operate (if unsubsidized)." I'd like to see some more detailed numbers on that though. Why would we count the cost of unsubsidized rail against air travel which is heavily subsidized? All that really matters is cost to the traveller, and unlike airlines, I'm assuming the high speed rail system is not going to be run as a for-profit business. He also makes no comparison of the environmental costs of air flight vs. the planned high speed rail system.

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

― eris bueller (lukas), Monday, August 12, 2013 11:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm generally contemptuous of futurists, primarily because they seem to think energy and climate change problems will just sort themselves out, but a mass transit system that relies on solar power and transports people across one of the busiest stretches of highway in America is a good thing. I looked at the first two feeds you suggested and they seemed to just be saying this is just a toy for rich people, which is afaict completely unsupported by his proposal. He's not suggesting a magic carpet for billionaires; it's mass transit that uses solar power. This is a good thing! Maybe it's completely impossible hogwash, but I'd like to see actual engineering criticism of it instead of casual dismissals based on suspicion of ideas from rich people.

the main challenges are not engineering-related, their political

anybody who is over the age of 25, has lived in a city for any length of time, and paid a modicum of attention to the world around them knows that these kinds of massive public works projects tend to be underbid by shady contractors and then they go wildly over the original schedule and budget. so the fact that he's coming in saying he can do it so much cheaper with a totally new and untested technology is a huge red flag. to me it immediately suggests that the whole thing is not serious.

if he honestly thinks this is a feasible plan he should raise some funding and build a private line from LA to Vegas.

It's transparently unserious in that he doesn't want to do it himself and "regrets even mentioning it"

right, that aspect has been p funny

haha, I missed that part

ya seems like he said something offhandedly then realized abt his celebrity

a mass transit system that relies on solar power and transports people across one of the busiest stretches of highway in America is a good thing.

people don't commute the LA to SF corridor though. i have a hard time believing a transit system would fill the role of the 5 freeway. it's mostly trucks anyway.

You know what would do really well in transportation corridors like that? Plain old freight trains.

I swear, the interstate highway system and the fact it's mostly used for semi truck freight is the biggest money hole in our post-WW2 car-dependent wonderland

there already are freight trains

people don't commute the LA to SF corridor though.

?! they most certainly do. there are these things called commuter flights, they are booked solid all the time.

there are a lot more trucks xp

what exactly are you proposing?

a solar powered superhighway paved with bitcoins duh

that we subsidize more public transport of freight in addition to passengers? or at least reallocate money away from interstate highways

idk, iatee and his ideas about gas prices to thread

HOOS otm

ah, ok. I thought maybe there was a problem with CA's existing freight lines. I don't really know anything about them but I do see freight trains going up and down the state all the time.

If this thing actually worked the political will would develop pretty quickly. If the Acela line was shipping people 400 miles in 30 minutes every state would want one.

Which is why yeah, he should just fucking build one. I wonder what a good demonstration distance would be.

L.A. to S.D.?

http://www.humancannonball.us/IMAGES/photos/017.jpg

what are the possible operating failure modes on one these loops

giant pillow deployment

halp im stuck in a tube inside of a tube

i dont like the experience of the computer hatchback but i guess it is safer, unless its telsa

Like iPhones vs flip-phones and landlines, the lack of an angry slamming option is a drawback to computer hatchbacks. Jabbing the down button and then standing there for a minute while it closes just isn't the same.

xps at caek: compressing a little means it's not meeting enough resistance to stop, right? the resistance threshold is just higher than zero

the reason you don't want it to keep retrying (and definitely not retry HARDER) is the same reason a powered garage door opener will stop and go back up if it hits something. you could be crushing a person

eh, I have no idea what I'm talking about. my point is that these things are tuned to overcome greater than *zero* resistance. doing that does involve the force they exert increasing momentarily (physics).

a car boot door is just one of those things that doesn't need to be automated imo, you can just shut it yourself

my last old banger had an "automatic" hand-brake that was just the biggest pain-in-the-ass, burned out a clutch trying to find the bite point with it while doing a hill-start, a manual hand-brake would have been so much better.

everything in a car doesn't need to be automated imo

Our kids are old enough now that it’s less of an issue but power tailgate was absolutely one of the reasons we upgraded a trim level, and we used it a lot when they were smaller.

my dad's old and got shoulder pain so closing the liftgate isn't fun for him

the only downside our autoliftgates is that sometimes the safety and locking systems are inscrutable and i cannot get the back up without like, turning off the car. but not always. i'm sure it's in the manual, and there's some toggle somewhere, but what a stupid pia.

in this old's opinion you should be able to open the liftgate while doing 75mph on I70 so your accomplice can push the body or contraband out the back without stopping or slowing

so I guessed the stock market would do two dumb things following the news that Tesla had bought some lidar units from a smaller vendor:
- that vendor's stock would jump for the day, then settle back down after people realized it's just a small company and there wasn't that much money involved
- the larger lidar vendors would then go up a couple days later, after people remembered lidar is a thing and some larger companies actually sell a lot of the tech

no way am I going to start regularly day trading but... yup

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
out on the road today
i saw a deadhead sticker
on a cyber truck
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

(field report c/o t.volk) pic.twitter.com/U9gcKKjaq2

— joel berk (@pfcidb) May 8, 2024

obvious shop

Don’t stare too long or you’ll die of the cringe

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C53WgcFMVNf/?igsh=MXNjcHZ6ZWRrOTYwdw==

(xxp) don't look back you can never look back... because there's no rear visability in these things

my friend has a Tesla and just started using the self-driving and he brought me and another friend in the car while it drove us to a destination 5 minutes away.

it did ok, I never felt my life was in danger, but it definitely got confused once or twice and did stop dead in the middle of a lane because it temporarily didn't know where it was

it did have the wheel nag and he even talked about it but fuckin christ even w/ that I was a little on edge lol.

wish Musk would just go into a coma or something

wow i don’t know how i would handle that situation

“got confused once or twice and did stop dead in the middle of a lane because it temporarily didn't know where it was”

daaaah wes joe biden driving you ppl dont have a problem when it’s him daah

sorry i need a break from like everything

i think stopping in the middle of the road qualifies as putting yr life in danger

well in that moment, not so much as it was a road with no vehicles traveling on it on a weeknight. but certainly if it HAD been a weekend, yeah, different story.

anywho now that I appeased him w/ that I will never get in that car again lol

co-lol