24 ms·

I think the real purpose of the Boring Company and Hyperloop were preventing/slowing expansion of public transit, and that by that measure they were successful.

blinding-streak 1y ago
I think the purpose was to extract money from governments, like most of Elon's businesses.
m463 1y ago
I don't think it was a carefully calculated conspiracy (such as 1) I think it was an engineer with found wealth starting to do stuff with it. but nowadays I think he has evolved into something different, maybe some of it from the wild public feedback loop, some of it because some of the things he cares about are going wildly wrong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...
- hedora 1y ago
  Elon says it was a conspiracy designed to sabotage high speed rail, just like the one you cited. The Koch brothers helped him: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article264451076.html https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article26445107...
  - derektank 1y ago
    There is nothing in the article, the twitter thread it quotes, or the text from Musk's biography quoted in the respective tweet, that indicates that the Koch brothers assisted Elon Musk in any way in trying to sabotage California's high speed rail. They're simply mentioned as other people that oppose transitioning away from automobiles. Furthermore, Elon Musk doesn't say that the Hyperloop "was a conspiracy designed to sabotage high speed rail." He is quoted in his biography as saying that he hates high speed rail, doesn't want them to build it, and thinks it's a waste of money. He also says that he had no intention of leading the effort to build Hyperloop himself, where he's directly quoted as saying, "Down the road, I might fund or advise on a Hyperloop project, but right now I can't take my eye off the ball at either SpaceX or Tesla." The biographer speculates that this means it was a cynical ploy to get HSR cancelled, and I don't think it's unreasonable to infer this, but one could just as easily infer that Elon really did want the California legislature to build something akin to a Hyperloop instead. There's no debating that Elon hates public transit, he'll tell you himself[1]. You don't have to spread misinformation to make that point [1] https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-transit/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-t...

blinding-streak 1y ago

I think the purpose was to extract money from governments, like most of Elon's businesses.

m463 1y ago

I don't think it was a carefully calculated conspiracy (such as 1) I think it was an engineer with found wealth starting to do stuff with it. but nowadays I think he has evolved into something different, maybe some of it from the wild public feedback loop, some of it because some of the things he cares about are going wildly wrong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

hedora 1y ago
Elon says it was a conspiracy designed to sabotage high speed rail, just like the one you cited. The Koch brothers helped him: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article264451076.html https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article26445107...
- derektank 1y ago
  There is nothing in the article, the twitter thread it quotes, or the text from Musk's biography quoted in the respective tweet, that indicates that the Koch brothers assisted Elon Musk in any way in trying to sabotage California's high speed rail. They're simply mentioned as other people that oppose transitioning away from automobiles. Furthermore, Elon Musk doesn't say that the Hyperloop "was a conspiracy designed to sabotage high speed rail." He is quoted in his biography as saying that he hates high speed rail, doesn't want them to build it, and thinks it's a waste of money. He also says that he had no intention of leading the effort to build Hyperloop himself, where he's directly quoted as saying, "Down the road, I might fund or advise on a Hyperloop project, but right now I can't take my eye off the ball at either SpaceX or Tesla." The biographer speculates that this means it was a cynical ploy to get HSR cancelled, and I don't think it's unreasonable to infer this, but one could just as easily infer that Elon really did want the California legislature to build something akin to a Hyperloop instead. There's no debating that Elon hates public transit, he'll tell you himself[1]. You don't have to spread misinformation to make that point [1] https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-transit/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-t...