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You have to consider the total cost of ownership. The exercise goes like this. What is the total traveling population per year that would get from point A to
by PakG1 13y ago
You have to consider the total cost of ownership. The exercise goes like this. What is the total traveling population per year that would get from point A to point B that would ride planes if not for hyperloop (assuming it becomes reality). That gives you the number of planes that would be used per year. Need to consider per year, because a lot of traveling is seasonal. Then what is the cost to maintain those planes, operating costs like fuel and pilots, insurance costs for damages and risks, etc, etc.
I have no idea how the total cost of ownership would compare. But I wouldn't write off hyperloop just because it would be expensive. It may be possible to make it work. Given how much plane tickets cost, I can easily imagine people paying more money for something that's seemingly more convenient and safe than planes.
edit: The man figured out how to turn launching rockets into a profitable business. The man thinks it's possible to build a nation-wide charging station network that can charge all the cars his company builds for free. With this type of thinking, I think he takes cost feasibility seriously, so I'm curious what he has up his sleeve.
edit2: Maybe what I wrote above maybe sounds too much like hero worship. I'm not saying he has everything figured out. I'm just saying I'd be very on the fence and would not bet for him or against him, but most definitely not against him.
- dm2 13y agoThere is not wrong with admiring heros, and I personally feel that any entrepreneur who changes the world and helps humanity as much as Musk has in just 10 years deserves to be called a hero. "Let's start a rocket company in effort to ensure the survivability of humanity." (something that only super-power are currently able to do) "Let's start an electric car company (and solar panel company) in effort to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels." (since other car companies are barely trying) Then to have the resources and perseverance to actually make these very difficult goals a reality is outstanding. Gates is doing something similar with his Thorium reactor research. Hopefully that will be another game changer. The Google co-founders have been doing similar projects for the past 10 years. Even if it does make them tons of money it's still admirable to give awesome software and hardware to the world at cost or free.
- kingkawn 13y agoGates' work in public health which has actually impacted the lives of people across the economic spectrum around the world. Musk and the Google Guys have some work to do before we can say that they've actually changed things for the better through their philanthropy for humanity as a whole. They have big plans, but its still a work in progress, and they don't deserve to be called heroes just for thinking big and spending money on interesting sample runs.
- klintcho 13y agoThough still think it's quite unfair to call Tesla and SpaceX "interesting sample runs".
- kingkawn 13y agoTesla's cars are prohibitively expensive for all but the most monied. As I've understood it so far SpaceX is a novelty to date that is supported almost entirely by NASA grants in the hope that it will eventually spur a true space industry. Both projects carry great potential, truly great potential. You don't deserve hero status for your potential, but how it is ultimately realized.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]