6 ms·

No I think it's generally right. The boring company seems like a really silly idea. It's an extension of a broken transportation system. Cities scale with buss

by tfha 9y ago

No I think it's generally right. The boring company seems like a really silly idea. It's an extension of a broken transportation system. Cities scale with busses and trains. For some reason, the boring company wants to scale a city with cars. You build this big expensive tunnel to get 1/10th or even 1/50th the throughput that you could get with a train system. Maybe that's not the California way though.

chrischen 9y ago
It's because he owns a car company. You can pretty much throw any idea he has for transit out the window there. If he had his way, he'd probably put rentable self-driving cars back-to-back in those tunnels. It'll be like aluminum and steel train cars, except each one is a Tesla.
adventured 9y ago
> Cities scale with busses and trains. You're missing that the boring premise is to utilize electric mass-transit units within the tunnels as well. That could dramatically scale the transit systems. It becomes a defacto variation of a subway system. Musk keeps pointing this out and it keeps getting ignored for some reason.
- hacknat 9y ago
  Because it’s an absurd idea. He’a trying to solve an already solved problem with an inferior consumer solution. When you look at the commuter trains of the major metro areas you’ll notice some very well off people that could afford to drive, but choose to ride in a comfortable train and focus on reading or catching up on email. Driving is an inferior mode of transportation. And before you yell, “but driverless cars!” Consider that many folks don’t want to buy a car in some of these bigger metro areas or to pay for the parking to maintain one. For so many reasons, beyond technology, traditional mass transit is the superior option. I couldn’t care less whether Musk achieves his technological goals with the Boring Company. It’s hawking an inferior product even if he does.
- namelost 9y ago
  Tunnels are dangerous. Elon is proposing to build really narrow tunnels that are hard to evacuate and then allow every random vehicle inside it. Yes it's on a sled but who is certifying that my fellow tunnelgoers' vehicles won't leak fuel, spontaneously catch fire, or find some other special way to kill me? Elon has some good ideas and some stupid ideas, this is of the latter category.
  - sudhirj 9y ago
    The tunnel could allow just Teslas - with their ultra fancy air filters you could set off a chemical weapon inside the tunnel and everyone in the cars would still be fine :D
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      By the time these tunnels are ready (if ever), urban private transportation will probably be primarily electric anyways.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Switzerland has a couple of tunnels in operation that have short haul trains running through them that you drive your car onto. They don't check what kind of cars are on the train, as long as they fit you're good.
    - shafyy 9y ago
      Yes, but those tunnels are not as narrow as Musk suggests and have good ventilation and an emergency exit every 100m or so. Source: Swiss that used the said tunnel multiple times.
  - Buttes 9y ago
    You also need hardcore vent systems.
njarboe 9y ago
With automated driving systems you can put the vehicles really close together with high speed and get throughput equal to train systems with single passenger cars. These same tunnels can also have vehicles in them with higher density seating (call them buses, if you like). If you put these vehicles close together you get a train. With this system you can have both cars, buses and trains running all in the same tunnel. Charge each by how much space they take up and vary the price so there is never a backup to get on. Seems like a transportation dream come true. Everybody gets the system they want to use.
- hypersoar 9y ago
  Apart from tolling based on footprint, that sounds exactly like what we have now. Automation might increase the capacity, but individual cars will never be as efficient the public transit we already know how to build. You're never going to get the cars closer together than people on a train.
  - njarboe 9y ago
    Did you read what I wrote? You can put buses into this system and charge by how much space the vehicle takes up. If a car is 1/2 the space of a bus then the bus pays 2 times the price and the people in the bus pay 1/20th the price. If demand is high enough then car travel will get very expensive and the system transitions very nicely to a train system with only large, packed buses traveling in it. This system is also nice because people could choose all types of different ways they would like to travel. From sleeper cars, to mobile offices, to cramped seats on a bus, to stand-only packed in like-sardines, we are now in a Japanese subway situation.
    - sundaeofshock 9y ago
      Or you could just make it a damn subway system at the begining and be done with it. This seems like a damned inefficient and expensive way to get a subway line.
      - 9y ago
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

by tfha 9y ago

chrischen 9y ago

It's because he owns a car company. You can pretty much throw any idea he has for transit out the window there. If he had his way, he'd probably put rentable self-driving cars back-to-back in those tunnels. It'll be like aluminum and steel train cars, except each one is a Tesla.

adventured 9y ago

> Cities scale with busses and trains. You're missing that the boring premise is to utilize electric mass-transit units within the tunnels as well. That could dramatically scale the transit systems. It becomes a defacto variation of a subway system. Musk keeps pointing this out and it keeps getting ignored for some reason.

hacknat 9y ago
Because it’s an absurd idea. He’a trying to solve an already solved problem with an inferior consumer solution. When you look at the commuter trains of the major metro areas you’ll notice some very well off people that could afford to drive, but choose to ride in a comfortable train and focus on reading or catching up on email. Driving is an inferior mode of transportation. And before you yell, “but driverless cars!” Consider that many folks don’t want to buy a car in some of these bigger metro areas or to pay for the parking to maintain one. For so many reasons, beyond technology, traditional mass transit is the superior option. I couldn’t care less whether Musk achieves his technological goals with the Boring Company. It’s hawking an inferior product even if he does.
namelost 9y ago
Tunnels are dangerous. Elon is proposing to build really narrow tunnels that are hard to evacuate and then allow every random vehicle inside it. Yes it's on a sled but who is certifying that my fellow tunnelgoers' vehicles won't leak fuel, spontaneously catch fire, or find some other special way to kill me? Elon has some good ideas and some stupid ideas, this is of the latter category.
- sudhirj 9y ago
  The tunnel could allow just Teslas - with their ultra fancy air filters you could set off a chemical weapon inside the tunnel and everyone in the cars would still be fine :D
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    By the time these tunnels are ready (if ever), urban private transportation will probably be primarily electric anyways.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Switzerland has a couple of tunnels in operation that have short haul trains running through them that you drive your car onto. They don't check what kind of cars are on the train, as long as they fit you're good.
  - shafyy 9y ago
    Yes, but those tunnels are not as narrow as Musk suggests and have good ventilation and an emergency exit every 100m or so. Source: Swiss that used the said tunnel multiple times.
- Buttes 9y ago
  You also need hardcore vent systems.

njarboe 9y ago

With automated driving systems you can put the vehicles really close together with high speed and get throughput equal to train systems with single passenger cars. These same tunnels can also have vehicles in them with higher density seating (call them buses, if you like). If you put these vehicles close together you get a train. With this system you can have both cars, buses and trains running all in the same tunnel. Charge each by how much space they take up and vary the price so there is never a backup to get on. Seems like a transportation dream come true. Everybody gets the system they want to use.

hypersoar 9y ago
Apart from tolling based on footprint, that sounds exactly like what we have now. Automation might increase the capacity, but individual cars will never be as efficient the public transit we already know how to build. You're never going to get the cars closer together than people on a train.
- njarboe 9y ago
  Did you read what I wrote? You can put buses into this system and charge by how much space the vehicle takes up. If a car is 1/2 the space of a bus then the bus pays 2 times the price and the people in the bus pay 1/20th the price. If demand is high enough then car travel will get very expensive and the system transitions very nicely to a train system with only large, packed buses traveling in it. This system is also nice because people could choose all types of different ways they would like to travel. From sleeper cars, to mobile offices, to cramped seats on a bus, to stand-only packed in like-sardines, we are now in a Japanese subway situation.
  - sundaeofshock 9y ago
    Or you could just make it a damn subway system at the begining and be done with it. This seems like a damned inefficient and expensive way to get a subway line.
    - 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]