Assuming that the weights of the lift car and the passenger load remain about the same, moving the motor to the car saves the weight of the cable, but adds the

Assuming that the weights of the lift car and the passenger load remain about the same, moving the motor to the car saves the weight of the cable, but adds the motor, power contacts, and whatever traction device (cog?) moves the car. edit: completely overlooked counter-weight balance, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5887522 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5887522 Adding regenerative braking adds some form of energy storage - batteries, flywheel, compressed air, or whatever. A flywheel might be lighter than batteries, but torque I/O might affect passenger comfort. It would be interesting to see how CF holds up over time. ISTR that Kevlar rope is very strong, but turned out to have unexpected issues with repeated jerky load/unload cycles. Presumably the CF elevator cable would have adequate testing before commercial use.