3 ms·

i would have compared hyperloop more to something like pipelines than trains..

• ghaff 12y ago
  A pipeline is pretty much the complete opposite of what you'd want to ship discrete goods. Pipelines work well for fluids because they're a homogenous liquid that have to be loaded and unloaded in discrete chunks to ship by train. With discrete goods on the other hand, the whole virtue of containers is that their content don't need to be loaded or unloaded to be inserted into a transportation system. And if a "pipeline" could take an entire preloaded container in some form? Well, we're back to something that looks and acts basically like a high-speed train.
  • bsaul 12y ago
    Except a train is using rails. Because hyperloop containers are in a sort of vacuum, they have extremely low friction. Ships still consume oil, and whenever one of those super cargo crash in the ocean, it's an environmental nightmare. And even when they don't, they're still polluting a lot ( i know, not that much compared to other means and the amount of goods they carry). There's probably still a way to carry goods from china to europe in a more environment friendly way...
    • kryptiskt 12y ago
      > There's probably still a way to carry goods from china to europe in a more environment friendly way... Maybe a modern unmanned sailing ship would fit.
      • ghaff 12y ago
        There have been various attempts to reduce fuel consumption by using sails, e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/earth/cargo-ship-designers-turn-to-wind-to-cut-cost-and-emissions.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/earth/cargo-ship-d... It probably gets less useful as ships get bigger though and there's a long history of trying this sort of thing without a whole lot of success. Modern systems do have better automation however.