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I'm going to guess that he didn't expect it to work. He never invested significantly, and there must be a reason. The simplest reason seems to be that he expec
by _ea1k 3y ago
I'm going to guess that he didn't expect it to work. He never invested significantly, and there must be a reason.
The simplest reason seems to be that he expected it not to work, at least with current technology.
- Ekaros 3y agoI always wondered just how bad an idea must have been. If Musk didn't go after it. Specially considering that he is the one who published it...
- Seanambers 3y agoElon Musk said from the outset that he was not gonna build it, he thought the idea was good and published a whitepaper on it which basically started the conversation. He also talks about a supersonic electrical passenger jet from time to time, but he says he don't have the time to do that either.
- jasonwatkinspdx 3y agoPerhaps we should apply a bit more of a critical standard to Elon's various statements: https://motherfrunker.ca/fsd/ https://motherfrunker.ca/fsd/
- sidibe 3y agoArgh those pesky regulators stopping Tesla from delivering robotaxis to their customers since 2018
- qsdf38100 3y agoHe did it to divert investment into high speed trains, which have the potential to significantly reduce the number of Teslas he could hope to sell. He successfully made investors waste hundreds of millions into these hyperloop startups, which are like real life parody of high-tech scam startups. On the other hand, one must be quite illiterate scientifically to buy into Musks grand sci-fi projects. Should only work on 5 years old. But you don’t have to believe, you just have to pretend and take these easy millions from rich but dumb VCs.
- oceanplexian 3y agoHe has the street cred to do that though. He took money to build SpaceX, and then delivered a system that can send astronauts to orbit. Unlike Jeff Bezos, Virgin Galactic or any of these other vaporware companies that promise a lot and then don't deliver.
- zizee 3y agoPhase 1 of the Californian high speed rail is/was not planned to open until 2030, and is just a 275 km long. Does that really sound like something that will slow the sales of Teslas?
- mynameisnoone 3y agoWhy risk your reputation on something high-risk or likely impossible if you can crowdsource others to waste their time and money to verify its continued infeasibility for you?
- enragedcacti 3y agoYou can say what Elon should have done with Twitter all you want, were talking about hyperloop /s
- mynameisnoone 3y agoHahaha. There are many viable businesses productive people can generate, many times more than they can delve into. As such, there is never an absence of ideas, it's almost always a lack of concentrated, deliberate execution in a category that can iterate into a viable, sustainable business. I think it's also possible to posit sketchy ideas that haven't worked before and bribe or cajole people into trying them.
- grecy 3y ago> Why risk your reputation on something high-risk or likely impossible You mean like the world's first reusable rocket, the only private company to sent astronauts to the ISS, the world's biggest rocket, or mass producing EVs? Yeah, you're right, it's good he stuck to the easy stuff!
- chrisco255 3y agoThe tech is fine, right? It's the long game you have to play with regulators and state and local officials to get right of way to build the tracks or tubes in the first place. Under current regulations, it would take a decade of intense focus and politickin' to probably achieve a minimal viable example.
- panick21_ 3y agoThe tech is actually not fine. The initial idea was that it would be a near vacume and that the sled would use air cushion to levitate. And that simply doesn't actually work. That is why all of the companies doing it switched to maglev. And we know the issues with maglev.
- chrisco255 3y agoMag lev works just fine in Japan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCMaglev https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCMaglev A partial vacuum would be trivial to achieve and you could by all means use mag lev + partial vacuum in a tube.
- panick21_ 3y agoOh you mean the project that has been going on for like 40 years costs 100+ billion $ and isn't operational? Yeah works great. I hear they are gone install on in Hoboken soon.
- _fizz_buzz_ 3y agoNobody doubts maglev works (there is also a maglev in China and Germany also had a test track since the 80s). There are a lot of things that technically work, but are not economical. The math just doesn't add up to build this in any way that is economically reasonable.
- chrisco255 3y agoIt's not economics, it's red tape.