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High-speed trains are awesome. We absolutely should be building more of them for the people who'd like to use them. But if someone wants to go directly from po
by mrshadowgoose 5y ago
High-speed trains are awesome. We absolutely should be building more of them for the people who'd like to use them.
But if someone wants to go directly from point A to B in a "gimmick jet", why should we try to prevent that?
I'll reiterate with your example. Building high-speed trains, and developing "gimmick jets" are not mutually exclusive endeavors. It's clear that you are not personally interested in a "gimmick jet", but there are people who would be. Why exactly should we be stopping those people?
- Maarten88 5y agoI would not want to stop these people. As an engineer, I find the technology very interesting and cool. And it is electric, so it is relatively less harmful than normal jets and helicopters. I do think that there are big challenges in people transport (mainly around cars and planes) and this does not solve any of those challenges, as it does not scale. So I see it as a gimmick: cool tech to show off.
- lmm 5y agoIf we put a higher regulatory burden on some means of transport than others, we'll distort the market. I'm all for letting everyone with an idea try it. But we need to apply our safety etc. standards consistently. A lot of these new transport startups are really just regulatory arbitrage where they're relying on not being regulated because they don't fit existing categories. Make it legal to build high-speed trains with the same (low) safety, noise pollution, interoperability etc. standards as gimmick jets, and we'd see a lot more practical transport getting built.