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> unless there are serious advances in rock boring techniques I'm pretty sure Elon Musk doesn't enter a market unless he intends to do just that. Edit: I got

by throwaway2016a 10y ago

> unless there are serious advances in rock boring techniques I'm pretty sure Elon Musk doesn't enter a market unless he intends to do just that. Edit: I got downvoted a bit but it is his MO. He takes things that are expensive and makes them cheaper. For what it's worth though, I do think the tunnels in that video are ridiculous.

astrodust 10y ago
And concrete production? And underground hazard detection? And coordination with city infrastructure? And...
- 27182818284 10y ago
  Honestly though these same sentences came up around Teslas too. And battery production? And crash test safety? And coordination with NHTSA?
  - astrodust 10y ago
    People made electric cars before Tesla and they'll make cars after. People made rockets before SpaceX and they'll make them after. He's cut component costs on the Tesla by maybe 70%. On the SpaceX project it's more like 80% compared to the highest cost competitor. Both of these are huge achievements. The problem with tunnels is they're not cars, not rockets, not anything like he's ever done before. If he had a functioning Hyperloop system, if he'd proven he can build out infrastructure on a geographic scale and not just product from a factory I'd be more likely to agree with you. This is a bad idea, a bad project, and a total waste of time.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - acchow 10y ago
      I really, really hope I get to see you eat your words in 30 years.
      - astrodust 10y ago
        I have to struggle to think of a dystopian future any more hellacious and soul-crushing than Musk's vision here. It's just tripling down on the concept of living a life centered around the car. Another step to eliminating all human interaction in the course of your daily life. If, by some stroke of genius and fluke of luck, this thing does get built it will go down in history as the most absurd thing ever constructed. Then perhaps a hundred years after it goes bankrupt someone will be drilling down there and hit a tunnel that nobody knew existed and re-discover its brief and absurd history just like Chicago has done with their own boring company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company
- throwaway2016a 10y ago
  You could change... > And concrete production? And underground hazard detection? And coordination with city infrastructure? And... to... > And battery production, and driving hazard detection, and coordinating with the FAA and NASA, and rockets, and... It's not guaranteed success (not even remotely) but if I had to bet on anyone... You act like Musk does all the work himself. If he wanted to he could hire the best and brightest in each of those areas and they can work in parallel. I don't even know if the guy is a good engineer. But I'm pretty sure to have the success he has had he knows how to inspire them.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    I think he's gone one step too far on this project. Concrete is something that's necessarily expensive to produce, there's inescapable costs in the production cycle, so while he could probably make it 80% cheaper, he can't make it 99.9% cheaper.
    - throwaway2016a 10y ago
      I agree that video goes WAY too far. The tunnels in that video are absurd. I give way better odds of him actually sending people to Mars than building that absurd tunnel system. But he might succeed at something somewhere in between the tunnel he is boring in his parking lot and the video. Context: I lived in Boston during much of the Big Dig. Large tunnel projects scare the heck out of me as a tax payer.
      - astrodust 10y ago
        If he wants to get into the tunnelling business and start bidding on these "big dig" projects in various cities, I think he'll find some success. His engineering aptitude, his ability to think around problems, that's gotten him to where he is today. If he retreats from this and builds some kind of pneumatic tube system to transport goods, people, or whatever, he still might have a chance of a win. Those systems have been proposed, and in some cases actually built, and in many cases they've been great ideas. If he stubbornly insists on pursuing this batshit insane system of tubes he will fail, and he'll fail hard. There is not enough concrete in the world to make that many tunnels.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

astrodust 10y ago

And concrete production? And underground hazard detection? And coordination with city infrastructure? And...

27182818284 10y ago
Honestly though these same sentences came up around Teslas too. And battery production? And crash test safety? And coordination with NHTSA?
- astrodust 10y ago
  People made electric cars before Tesla and they'll make cars after. People made rockets before SpaceX and they'll make them after. He's cut component costs on the Tesla by maybe 70%. On the SpaceX project it's more like 80% compared to the highest cost competitor. Both of these are huge achievements. The problem with tunnels is they're not cars, not rockets, not anything like he's ever done before. If he had a functioning Hyperloop system, if he'd proven he can build out infrastructure on a geographic scale and not just product from a factory I'd be more likely to agree with you. This is a bad idea, a bad project, and a total waste of time.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - acchow 10y ago
    I really, really hope I get to see you eat your words in 30 years.
    - astrodust 10y ago
      I have to struggle to think of a dystopian future any more hellacious and soul-crushing than Musk's vision here. It's just tripling down on the concept of living a life centered around the car. Another step to eliminating all human interaction in the course of your daily life. If, by some stroke of genius and fluke of luck, this thing does get built it will go down in history as the most absurd thing ever constructed. Then perhaps a hundred years after it goes bankrupt someone will be drilling down there and hit a tunnel that nobody knew existed and re-discover its brief and absurd history just like Chicago has done with their own boring company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company
throwaway2016a 10y ago
You could change... > And concrete production? And underground hazard detection? And coordination with city infrastructure? And... to... > And battery production, and driving hazard detection, and coordinating with the FAA and NASA, and rockets, and... It's not guaranteed success (not even remotely) but if I had to bet on anyone... You act like Musk does all the work himself. If he wanted to he could hire the best and brightest in each of those areas and they can work in parallel. I don't even know if the guy is a good engineer. But I'm pretty sure to have the success he has had he knows how to inspire them.
- astrodust 10y ago
  I think he's gone one step too far on this project. Concrete is something that's necessarily expensive to produce, there's inescapable costs in the production cycle, so while he could probably make it 80% cheaper, he can't make it 99.9% cheaper.
  - throwaway2016a 10y ago
    I agree that video goes WAY too far. The tunnels in that video are absurd. I give way better odds of him actually sending people to Mars than building that absurd tunnel system. But he might succeed at something somewhere in between the tunnel he is boring in his parking lot and the video. Context: I lived in Boston during much of the Big Dig. Large tunnel projects scare the heck out of me as a tax payer.
    - astrodust 10y ago
      If he wants to get into the tunnelling business and start bidding on these "big dig" projects in various cities, I think he'll find some success. His engineering aptitude, his ability to think around problems, that's gotten him to where he is today. If he retreats from this and builds some kind of pneumatic tube system to transport goods, people, or whatever, he still might have a chance of a win. Those systems have been proposed, and in some cases actually built, and in many cases they've been great ideas. If he stubbornly insists on pursuing this batshit insane system of tubes he will fail, and he'll fail hard. There is not enough concrete in the world to make that many tunnels.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]