4 ms·

Yeah but if a Paris Metro train gets stuck, the tunnels are enormous and your maintenance staff can walk from the nearest station to repair and un-stuck the tra

by nvy 3y ago

Yeah but if a Paris Metro train gets stuck, the tunnels are enormous and your maintenance staff can walk from the nearest station to repair and un-stuck the train. It's not clear to me that these tunnels will be sufficiently large.

KennyBlanken 3y ago
You send a recovery vehicle down the line to fetch it, capable of hooking it, and strong enough to tow/ drag it to an exit point or service "vault" just like "vaults" on underground tunnels for power, data, gas, etc. The tow vehicle basically just needs to weigh enough. Or you send a human down the line on a platform with wheels. The tunnel would have to be at least as high as those crates and at least twice as wide. There are far bigger challenges here, like the absolutely massive cost of digging / boring the tunnel and trying to amortize that over what you're delivering. You have to move a fuckton of Big Macs to have this make financial sense, and your competitors include "a guy on an electric bike making tips who uses a few KWhr of electricity over an 8-10 hour shift." It's really hard to compete against massively subsidized public infrastructure (roads and ICE vehicles) when you're not subsidized at all.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  Has any private company in the last decade or so had a successful startup that had to build massive infrastructure? While I’m no fan of Musk and his management of Twitter has been a shit show, I must begrudgingly admit that he is damn good at building companies that produce real tangible hardware based products that require infrastructure
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
  Ok get this. We make a spider bot that suctions to random cars going in the general direction that we want to deliver the package. If the car turns to go in the wrong direction, the spider bot jumps off and hitches to the next vehicle. Free transit, no infrastructure costs.
  - smolder 3y ago
    Considering this for kicks: People probably wouldn't like their fuel economy being tanked by the extra weight and aerodynamic drag of your spiders. So, as a driver, I might try to make my car slippery or otherwise ungrabbable. Alternatively, I might try to let off the gas so that the other cars end up having to do the work of hauling the spider. Naturally if everyone does this, the whole gang slows to a halt.

by nvy 3y ago

KennyBlanken 3y ago

You send a recovery vehicle down the line to fetch it, capable of hooking it, and strong enough to tow/ drag it to an exit point or service "vault" just like "vaults" on underground tunnels for power, data, gas, etc. The tow vehicle basically just needs to weigh enough. Or you send a human down the line on a platform with wheels. The tunnel would have to be at least as high as those crates and at least twice as wide. There are far bigger challenges here, like the absolutely massive cost of digging / boring the tunnel and trying to amortize that over what you're delivering. You have to move a fuckton of Big Macs to have this make financial sense, and your competitors include "a guy on an electric bike making tips who uses a few KWhr of electricity over an 8-10 hour shift." It's really hard to compete against massively subsidized public infrastructure (roads and ICE vehicles) when you're not subsidized at all.

scarface_74 3y ago
Has any private company in the last decade or so had a successful startup that had to build massive infrastructure? While I’m no fan of Musk and his management of Twitter has been a shit show, I must begrudgingly admit that he is damn good at building companies that produce real tangible hardware based products that require infrastructure
8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
Ok get this. We make a spider bot that suctions to random cars going in the general direction that we want to deliver the package. If the car turns to go in the wrong direction, the spider bot jumps off and hitches to the next vehicle. Free transit, no infrastructure costs.
- smolder 3y ago
  Considering this for kicks: People probably wouldn't like their fuel economy being tanked by the extra weight and aerodynamic drag of your spiders. So, as a driver, I might try to make my car slippery or otherwise ungrabbable. Alternatively, I might try to let off the gas so that the other cars end up having to do the work of hauling the spider. Naturally if everyone does this, the whole gang slows to a halt.