You'd better get that in writing:
A plan to build an ultrafast Hyperloop [
One] tube train has been given "verbal [government] approval" to connect large cities on the East Coast, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk says. He adds that the system would whisk passengers from New York to Washington, D.C., in 29 minutes.After his tweet about the plan set off intense interest, Musk added a clarification, stating, "Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly."
We're seeking more details from Musk and his companies that are involved in the Hyperloop project — from the vehicle unit to the Boring Co., which would dig the tunnels. He did not specify, for instance, which agency had given its approval or when construction might begin.
Engineers who are working on the project have the goal of sending pods through a tube at speeds of more than 700 mph, using magnetic levitation and an electric motor in a vacuum environment.
The Boring Company's mundane tunneling plans may have been a red herring to distract from underground Hyperloop development.
Is this how Muskmania dies? With an undeliverable promise of multi-billion dollar infrastructure? Or will Musk deliver a transportation system faster than the highest-speed rail, create the world's most valuable car company, and build a Hyperloop on Mars designed to transport him from the ice caps to his throne (crafted from the disinterred bones of Steve Jobs) at Olympus Mons?
n1 writes:
A White House spokesman said there had been "promising conversations to date" with Musk and Boring Company executives but would only say the administration is “committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector.”
Several spokespeople who answered the phones at relevant city, state and federal government bodies laughed upon hearing of the claim that an interstate transit project with a significant street-level footprint in four of the east coast’s largest cities could be approved verbally.
“Who gave him permission to do that?” asked a spokesman with the Maryland department of transportation.
“Elon Musk has had no contact with Philadelphia officials on this matter,” said Mike Dunn, the city spokesman. “We do not know what he means when he says he received ‘verbal government approval’. There are numerous hurdles for this ‘hyperloop’ technology before it can become reality.”
A spokesperson for the state of Pennsylvania confirmed that neither the governor nor the state’s department of transportation had been contacted by Musk or his company.
Ben Sarle, a spokesman for the New York City mayor’s office, said in an email: “Nobody in City Hall, or any of our city agencies, has heard from Mr Musk or any representatives of his company.”
The Guardian article [emphasis added] continues on with quotes from government officials in New York, Washington DC and federal agencies who had similar statements.
This news comes the day after the SolarCity co-founder, Peter Rive announced his resignation. Lyndon Rive left the company in May. Tesla has been taking pre-orders for their new solar roof tiles since May. Installations were supposed to begin in June, but there has been no further news, functional product demonstrations or even technical specifications.
Earlier this week Elon Musk told the National Governors Association meeting that the solar roof for the Model 3 (or any car) was not practical and was an idea that would be "scrapped."
James Murdoch, Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Fox and Linda Johnson Rice, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson Publishing Company have joined the Tesla board of directors on Monday. Earlier this year, a letter from shareholders raised concerns about conflicts of interest among board members.
Related Stories
The Hill had an interesting opinion piece on what it will take to get Elon Musk's hands out of taxpayer wallets:
A study published two years ago by The Los Angeles Times revealed that just three of Musk's ventures – SolarCity Corp. (which manufactured and installed solar energy systems before its 2016 merger with Tesla Motors Inc.), Tesla Motors Inc. (which manufactures electric vehicles), and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX (which builds rocket ships) – had received $4.9 billion in government subsidies to that point in time. By now, Musk's various ventures have sucked well over $5 billion from government coffers.
[...] By definition, [crony capitalism] distorts the marketplace, and warps investment decisions better made by private stewards of finance unencumbered by political considerations, whose only fiduciary responsibility is to those whose funds they manage. By adding the political calculus to the decision-making matrix, it alters outcomes, and prevents the most economically efficient deployment of limited financial resources.
[...] Here's the question I hear when I'm talking to friends in Georgia who ask me to explain Washington to them: "Why should those guys in Washington take my hard-earned tax dollars and use them to lower the price of an electric car for some movie star in Hollywood?"
[...] So that's why I'm hoping Tesla's Model 3 is a yuuuuuuuuge hit. I hope Elon Musk sells enough of those cars that he can make a profit on his own, without needing to dip any further into our pocketbooks and wallets.
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Company has received permission to dig 10.1 miles of tunnel in Maryland:
On Thursday, Maryland officials gave Elon Musk's Boring Company permission to dig a 10.1-mile tunnel "beneath the state-owned portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, between the Baltimore city line and Maryland 175 in Hanover," according to the Baltimore Sun.
According to Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn, The Boring Company (which Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk founded to advance tunneling technology) wants to build two 35-mile tunnels between Baltimore and Washington, DC. The federal government owns about two-thirds of the land that Musk's company would need to dig underneath. As of Friday, it was unclear whether that permission had been granted. (A Department of Transportation spokeswoman told Ars that the land in question was owned by the National Park Service, which did not immediately respond to request for comment.)
But the 10 miles that have been approved by the state of Maryland will for the first leg of an underground system that could contain a Hyperloop system. Musk first floated the idea of a Hyperloop—which would ferry passengers through a low-pressure tube in levitating pods floating above a track using air-bearings—in 2013. But the CEO determined that he didn't have time to see his idea through to fruition, so he issued a white paper and challenged startups and students alike to make headway on the concept.
Also at The Washington Post (archive).
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
Elon Musk has released an image showing a tunnel under Hawthorne, California, near SpaceX's headquarters:
Musk's LA tunnel is a pilot project designed to test the feasibility of his plan to dig tunnels at a lower cost and more efficiently than current tunnel boring companies operate, with the eventual aim of supplying cities and regions with underground tunnel networks that can transport goods and services while avoiding surface obstacles and traffic.
The Boring Co. is still a long way from achieving the grand vision of constructing inter-city underground Hyperloop tubes for high-speed travel, but it's making rapid progress on its initial test digging and tunnel construction, which should go some way to proving to its detractors that this is more than just a pipe dream.
Also at Engadget and The Verge.
Previously: Elon Musk Wants to be Boring
Tunnel to 'Underworld' Discovered Beneath Mexican Pyramid
Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC Hyperloop: Not Vaporware?
Elon Musk wants to sell you a flamethrower for $500 — and it seems to be legal in California
Elon Musk, the mastermind behind PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, has another innovative product up in his sleeve: a $500 flamethrower. Musk announced the flamethrower on Saturday, after weeks of teasing a possible flamethrowing product for his newest venture, The Boring Company. The Boring Company's mission is to excavate a low-cost but fast-digging tunnel through Los Angeles to help alleviate its notorious car traffic.
Musk's announcements on Instagram and Twitter about the flamethrower has all been in tongue-in-cheek tone, but his legions of followers have lapped up the chance to buy a flamethrower from The Boring Company. Over 2,000 people have pre-ordered the device so far, according to Musk on Twitter.
Pre-orders are expected to ship in the spring, according to The Boring Company's website. "When the zombie apocalypse happens, you'll be glad you bought a flamethrower," tweeted Musk. "Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!"
The California Health and Safety Codes 12750 to 12761 outline that owning or selling flamethrowers is illegal without a permit granted from the state fire marshal, joining Maryland as the only two states in the country to have flamethrower regulations. The state has defined flamethrowers as "any nonstationary and transportable device designed or intended to emit or propel a burning stream of combustible or flammable liquid a distance of at least 10 feet." But since The Boring Company's flamethrower emits fire less than the defined 10 feet, they did not have to get a permit to sell, according to the company's spokesman.
At time of this story being posted, the pre-order count had climbed to 10k.
Update: One California lawmaker wants to ban the flamethrower. But it's puny compared to other flamethrowers.
Also at CNN, MarketWatch, and CNET.
Related: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC Hyperloop: Not Vaporware?
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Elon Musk to Compete for High-Speed Rail Loop in Chicago
In November, Washington, D.C.'s Department of Transportation granted the Boring Company a permit to excavate at a parking lot within the city:
Washington, D.C., has issued a permit allowing Elon Musk's Boring Company to do preparatory and excavation work in what is now a parking lot north of the National Mall. The company says the site could become a Hyperloop station.
The permit, reported Friday by the Washington Post, was issued way back on November 29th of 2017. The permit is part of an exploratory push by the city's Department of Transportation, which according to a spokesperson is examining the feasibility of digging a Hyperloop network under the city. The Hyperloop is an as-yet theoretical proposal to use depressurized tubes and magnet-levitated pods to move passengers at very high speeds.
From The Washington Post:
Asked about the permit, issued Nov. 29, a Boring Company spokesman said Friday that "a New York Avenue location, if constructed, could become a station" in a broad network of such stops across the new system.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) visited the Boring Company in California this month, walking in a tunnel to learn more about the technology the company says will make tunneling faster and cheaper.
The District's Department of Transportation is figuring out what other permits the Boring Company would need to cut under city roads and other public spaces, according to Bowser's chief of staff, John Falcicchio.
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC Hyperloop: Not Vaporware?
Related: Hyperloop Pod Competition Winner Exceeds 200mph (324 km/h)
Sir Richard Branson Invests in Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Elon Musk's Boring Company Sells Flamethrowers
Elon Musk's Boring Co. Wins Chicago Airport High-Speed Train Bid
Elon Musk's Boring Co. is the winner in a bid to build a multibillion-dollar high-speed express train to O'Hare International Airport, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The result gives the young company a big boost in legitimacy as it tries to get transportation projects underway in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
The company beat out a consortium that included Mott MacDonald, the civil engineering firm that designed a terminal at London's Heathrow Airport, and JLC Infrastructure, an infrastructure fund backed by former basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson, said the people, who declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. The city is expected to announce the news as soon as Thursday, one person said.
It's a sizeable victory for a company that was launched just 18 months ago, is working with unproven futuristic ideas, and—aside from a test tunnel it is digging in the Los Angeles suburb Hawthorne, California—lacks construction experience.
Also at Chicago Tribune, CNBC, and The Verge.
Previously: Elon Musk to Compete for High-Speed Rail Loop in Chicago
Related: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
Elon Musk pitches $1, 150 MPH "Loop" Rides under Los Angeles
Local leaders cooling to Boring Company tunnel promises
Virginia state transit officials are telling The Boring Company "thanks but no thanks," at least for now. The Virginia Mercury reported yesterday that the state's chief of rail transportation, Michael McLaughlin, was not sufficiently impressed by his recent visit to Elon Musk's test tunnel in California to recommend that the state work with the startup.
"It's a car in a very small tunnel," McLaughlin reportedly told the state's Transportation Board public transit subcommittee this week. "If one day we decide it's feasible, we'll obviously come back to you," he added.
[...] In February, Musk tweeted that the company was working on improving its test tunnel. "Focus right now is getting to high speed, tight follow distance in test tunnel," the CEO tweeted. He said that "Line-Storm," The Boring Company's second-generation boring machine, would start getting updates "in a month or so."
But even as The Boring Company says it's trying to improve on tunneling efficiency and design, Chicago may be looking to take a step back from the express line that Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged to build with the company. The mayor's office announced in June 2018 that it would work with The Boring Company to build a long-awaited express line between O'Hare International Airport and the Windy City's downtown area.
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Company Wins Chicago O'Hare International Airport Transportation Contract
Elon Musk's Boring Bricks
The Boring Company Announces Dec. 10 Debut for First Los Angeles Tunnel
The Boring Company Won't Pursue Los Angeles Tunnel Under 405 Freeway
Elon Musk Startup Picked to Build Las Vegas 'People Mover'
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @04:56PM (2 children)
You know I really don't need to read about how many government officials have sucked Musk and swallowed his cum. Of course around here it's all envy isn't it. All you cock suckers wish so hard for Musk cock in your mouths.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @05:01PM (1 child)
Grow up
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @05:08PM
Sorry I can't. I've been type-cast by the trolling guild as a bitter manchild troll, so that's the role I play. If you have a problem, take it up the ass, bitch.
(Score: 3, Informative) by BasilBrush on Friday July 21 2017, @05:15PM (19 children)
Well so far Musk has come through on pretty much everything he's started. So I wouldn't bet against him.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @05:24PM
Musk has come gallon of cum! There's no stopping him from drilling his massive cock into all of our mothers.
(Score: 2) by unauthorized on Friday July 21 2017, @06:41PM (16 children)
So far, Mike Tyson has delivered on every promise to pummel people into the ground, therefore you should believe him when he says he'll build a fusion reactor!
Musk has been threading familiar ground so far, but the HyperFloop is a different beast entirely. Nothing like this has ever been done and numerous engineering challenges have not been met. This is nothing like building incrementally off NASA's decade-long work or putting an electromotor in a car.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday July 21 2017, @07:08PM
So far, Mike Tyson has delivered on every promise...
"My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want your heart, I want to eat his children.” - Mike Tyson
Damn, I must have missed an action-packed news-cycle that week!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 21 2017, @07:43PM (5 children)
Like landing a rocket booster back at the launch site. (Which NASA believed couldn't be done.)
Then landing a rocket booster on a pitching barge at sea.
While I think Tesla's motor / inverter / generator is ingenious, you probably should have mentioned the batteries.
How many naysayers were there for Solar City?
Oh, wait . . . for PayPal. (Think what you want of PayPal, and I don't think much of it, but it funded Musk's other billion dollar adventures.)
The Hyperloop might fail. It really might. But that was also a very real possibility for SpaceX even getting to orbit without going bankrupt first. It was also a very real possibility for SpaceX landing a booster. Failure could happen. But given Musk's track record, I would tend to believe him a wee bit more than Jeff Bezos.
I'll point out one more. The Falcon Heavy might fail. At first. It might fail several times. It might be a LOT harder than SpaceX thought it would be. For that reason, they should just give up. It would be easier.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday July 21 2017, @08:12PM (4 children)
Hyperloop technology was dreamed up successively in the 1700s, 1800, etc. It was dreamed up again by Robert Goddard. (Yes, THAT Robert Goddard) [wikipedia.org] and his wife received his patent just after his death.
I suspect Verbal Approval amounts to one or more federal executives stating they would not fight him tooth and nail, so go ahead and make your proposal(s).
People read too much into casual statements.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by BasilBrush on Friday July 21 2017, @08:20PM
Innovation isn't about coming up with completly new ideas. Those are very, very rare.
Nor is it about coming up with derivative ideas. Those are so common they are worthless.
Innovation is about implementation. It's actually doing what other people have only talked about. Those are the important people.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 21 2017, @08:24PM (1 child)
I am not talking primarily about the approvals, but about the technology.
Of course, the approvals are necessary. Those may be the impossibility.
Another thing that I have considered. At some point Elon may become cocky. Hubris from past successes. It is not impossible that it could happen.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:48PM
At some point Elon may become cocky.
According to the first post, he already has.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:48AM
> At some point Elon may become cocky.
According to the first post, he already has.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Friday July 21 2017, @08:41PM (8 children)
Mike Tyson is not a nuclear engineer.
Elon musk is a very successful engineering manager and entrepreneur.
If you think that what Tesla and SpaceX have done is easy, then you don't have a clue about either.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by n1 on Friday July 21 2017, @08:50PM (7 children)
I did some napkin calculations on some possibly out of date figures... Elon's personal share TSLA holdings are worth about $60,000 per car sold, as the company continues to lose money (over $1bn this year probably) and has absolutely no time horizon for profitability.
Solar City was so successful it has to be absorbed into TSLA to avoid bankruptcy.
People can have faith in Musk, believe in what he's selling... He's a very special case, basically no one can do what he's done, without connections to people like Thiel and cult of personality being cultivated around him, which really picked up steam after the Steve Jobs story ended.
His most amazing successes are raising capital and convincing investors, delivering effective (in cost and scale) revolutionary technological solutions to practical problems has yet to be demonstrated.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Saturday July 22 2017, @12:01AM (6 children)
Presumably you also thought that Amazon was a big fat failure all the years they were growing rather than generating profits. It's what you do when you are going from being a startup to the international big league.
Revolutionary technological solutions to practical problems has yet to be demonstrated? Try taking a look at SpaceX's rocket booster coming back down to lans precisely on it's launch platform. A feat NASA thought impossible.
What is it with geeks and their jealousy of successful people?
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by n1 on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:18AM (2 children)
Amazon and Tesla are very different beasts and not really comparable. Same as the people who talk about Tesla and iPhones... Relatively, iPhones and everything sold on Amazon is cheap and within reach of most consumers. 'S3XY' packaged tech that has a barrier to entry of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars is not the same thing and cannot scale in the same way.
Seven years after IPO, Tesla has a P/E of -49.5 ... Seven years after IPO, Amazon had a P/E of 46.23 ... Now Amazon has a PE of 415. Amazon is currently massively overvalued... If Musk was doing this all by himself, I wouldn't really care but he's selling a dream to retail investors and governments and is reaping the rewards before the game has even changed, let alone being the MVP of it (on tangible, publicly available information). It may well be a noble goal, but he's going about it in a way that is all about how things look, rather than the nuts and bolts and getting these products into as many markets and hands as possible, to save the world. The barrier to entry to owning a Musk product is so much higher than an Amazon or Apple product. The similarities could be that all three are big fans of walled gardens and retaining control over products they sell to the customer.
I cannot find the 'NASA said it's impossible' quote... Not cost effective was the contention from what I could find... There is no evidence that Space X has made this a cost-effective alternative. It could be the wal-mart approach, kill the competition whilst losing money, then make the money back when you have the monopoly. Nor do I understand how this is a solution to a problem. Doing something you couldn't do before isn't better by itself, what are the cost and/or operational benefits? Aside from potentially putting ULA out of business, what effect does this have? As i've mentioned in comments before, the most interesting part of Musks operations (SpaceX) is the part which he and his associates keep for themselves and does not have to disclose the financial status of. NASA managed to put people on the moon and then take off again all those decades ago.
I am not jealous of Musk. My contention is that no one can seek to emulate his 'successes' and any benchmarks available to measure the successes in a way that would be repeatable and worthy of praise are always moved onto the next project. The turning point into a sustainable business model are not visible to anyone. He is in a very unique circumstance which you cannot use as a model for your own business or vision of a better future. All you can do is buy stock in TSLA and have faith in the messiah.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Saturday July 22 2017, @12:03PM (1 child)
I guaratee that you were nay-saying Apple all the way up too.
"is reaping the rewards before the game has even changed"
EVs are on an enevitable technology adoption curve to domination of the market. And virtually all car manufacturers have realised it now, and are all struggling to catch up. If you don't see that, then that's your failure.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:21PM
> EVs are on an enevitable technology adoption curve to domination of the market.
This is not a given. First, what is a reasonable definition of "domination"? For USA, trucks & SUV's are currently more than half of new sales of "light vehicles". So even if all cars were replaced with electrics, it still would not be half of all vehicles sold.
There are plenty of hurdles left for electric adoption including the additional generation capability required. Then there are all the renters that have no charging option with street parking. Sales for pure EVs in various parts of the world have collapsed recently when government subsidies were removed (see Denmark -- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-02/denmark-is-killing-tesla-and-other-electric-cars [bloomberg.com] ). This is about to happen to Tesla in USA when they produce vehicle number 200,001 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_incentives_for_plug-in_electric_vehicles#United_States [wikipedia.org]
If you include hybrids, their market penetration has dropped in the last couple of years, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States [wikipedia.org] Only Toyota has really done well in this area, other companies have not had much success.
I see pure EVs as a good niche solution for up to about 5% of the USA market, looking 10-15 years out. Far from "domination".
(Score: 2) by n1 on Saturday July 22 2017, @03:18AM (2 children)
Another thing that is maybe worth considering are the two new appointments to the Tesla board of directors.
James Murdoch and Linda Johnson-Rice are not engineers, scientists, or even business analysts, CFOs or anything else that would add value to the board... They are media moguls, artists at crafting messages, telling stories and managing perceptions. They are not people who are going to take Elon to task over the financial status, legal barriers, the technical challenges or anything actually business related. So long as the share price can keep on it's current trajectory -- and capital injections are available -- these new board members will have no concerns of how the company is being managed or if there's sustainable business model at scale.
Personally, I am waiting to see how well the Model 3 is received, when they're actually in the wild, being reviewed by people who are not insiders or fans. It could be the turning point, but even before it's launched the attention is shifting to the Model Y as the real game changer... I am curious to see if the sales and deliveries meet projections. This is the closest thing the company has to a near term 'mass market' product, but it's still not the magic bullet in my opinion.
I know very few people who could make use of a plug-in EV (in Europe) ... People park on the street, I used to have to park 2 or 3 blocks from my house. Same applies at the business parks where the typical M3 owner will go to work, the infrastructure is not in place and is not a realistic prospect to retrofit into business/industrial parks or inner cities in general for EV charging. My opinion is the majority of Model 3 buyers will have it as a second or third car, and many will already own a Model S. It's not going to put a dent into sales of the Toyota Camry or any other entry level family car.
I know even fewer people who own a house, that's before we find some with the finances to put a $60k solar roof on it. I don't think anyone I know has ever had the need to replace an entire roof of traditional tiles (in the UK).
If they're aiming for mass market adoption to get the world onto renewable/sustainable energy, and not concerned about short-term profit in pursuit of this very noble goal they're doing it wrong... If they're aiming for being a marketing company who also sells status symbols for virtue signaling to people who have a lot of cash, then they're doing it right.
We're getting late into this current business cycle, can Tesla survive an economic contraction, recession or a depression? The company has been thriving while burning money so far, in age of unconventional monetary policy such as QE and extremely low interest rates, coupled with a stock market that keeps growing across the board while profits have not moved an inch for years.
But maybe it's different this time, we're at a new permanently high plateau where having a vision is enough to pay the bills on your multi-billion dollar capital intensive business operations.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:58PM (1 child)
They don't have to meet projections or delivery estimates.
The mere delivery of a few vehicles will impact competitors.
Its already killed Chevy Bolt sales. [reuters.com] Chevy can't GIVE those cars away.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:47PM
You didn't read far enough down that Reuters article:
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday July 21 2017, @07:04PM
Well so far Musk has come through on pretty much everything he's started. So I wouldn't bet against him.
I wouldn't bet against him, either. (In the long run)
However.......10 years in the regulatory business is screaming "if it's not on paper it didn't happen." Seriously, even if it did happen, if it's not on paper, it didn't happen.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday July 21 2017, @05:44PM (12 children)
A "verbal approval" is only the start of 20 years of paperwork and lawsuits.
But, imagining that the start digging tomorrow, the math seems odd.
Spend a lot of billions digging tunnels, quite a few billion building stations, a lot of millions maintaining tunnel integrity and the vacuum, then get less than a thousand persons through per hour per tunnel? Dude could put his money into an updated Concorde instead, the tickets would be cheaper and the flexibility to expand much better.
Get that Boring company working on a tunnel under the Sepulveda Pass reserved for electric cars, that's a lot better use
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 21 2017, @05:47PM (6 children)
There's boring, and then there's infrastructure development.
20 years may be generous considering the technology is unproven at full scale.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Friday July 21 2017, @06:19PM (5 children)
Step 1: Dig a two-lane DC-NY tunnel.
Step 2: Sell hyperloop shares.
Step 3: Announce Tesla sales are plummeting. Halving Tesla stocks.
Step 4: Announce 1000km/h hyperloop doesn't work. Halving hyperloop and crashing Tesla shares.
Step 5: Buy Tesla shares.
Step 6: Ch.11. Crashing hyperloop shares.
Step 7: Buy hyperloop shares.
Step 8: Settle in court to deliver the next best high-speed rail.
Step 9: Announce a hyperloop-Tesla deal for the construction of a 600km/h high-speed electric rail. Tesla & hyperloop stocks skyrocket to an all time high.
Step 10: Deliver the same 400km/h electric rail all the Asian contractors been offering for the past 20 years at x10 the price.
Profit.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 21 2017, @10:38PM (4 children)
Those 400km/h trains won't work in a tunnel the way they do on the surface.
They will need lower pressure in the tunnel for a stable ride.
Watch out shares going south as the cost of transport makes it ineffective or the trains crash at 400 km/h in tunnels (or are forced to go slower)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:47AM (3 children)
Just digging some vents out every few feet with equalize the conditions with the surface. There are already high-speed 350km/h rails running in this fashion with new ones being built for 450km/h in Asia.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:50AM (2 children)
Vents... every few feet... in the middle of New York or Washington DC...
What can go wrong [biography.com] indeed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:30AM
The train takes a while to built up speed and break anyhow so there won't be too many around the city stations. Or better yet:
1. Dig the vents.
2. Have people complain about them.
3. Shut the vents and reduce the speed pointing to the complaints as a reason to slow down the train even further.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:28PM
I don't see anything wrong in the linked picture
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 21 2017, @07:53PM (2 children)
Get that Boring company to work on tunnels under New Jersey for storing nuclear waste piling up at power plants.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday July 21 2017, @08:33PM (1 child)
> tunnels under New Jersey for storing nuclear waste
*Remembers Godzilla*
*Pictures giant mutated Chris Christie*
I'm glad there's the whole Midwest to stop it with as many nukes as it will take, before its gets to us...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 24 2017, @03:26PM
The word giant, and possibly the word mutated are redundant.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @09:34PM
Nobody cares about you west coast losers.
New York == Owners
Washington DC == Owners' Flunkies
Fast transport for the owners Trumps west coast morons every day of the week.
#MAGA
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:08PM
You're looking at the sums from the wrong direction, try: who is getting paid, who is doing the paying, and who controls the decisions? If the payees are in control of the decision and the payers are not, the project is a GO.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @06:06PM
and knocking over humans with my explosions of cum - like a bowling ally really but out in the field
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday July 21 2017, @06:20PM
Musk - despite this annoying trend of fancy-fresh-tech-company worship like they ain't no world ender - is an experienced lobbyist and in general knows how to counter-grift. When he says he received verbal approval and is optimistic. He means something [wikipedia.org], and that's how his voice will be heard as it were. I'm well past the point in believing people like this get excited like 9 year old girls and post irresponsibly. The hinting response of "promising conversation" would appear to mean that his SYN was ACK'd.
Also, points have been made about the hyperloop I can't really ignore. Some made in the summary itself. I guess we'll see who he turns out to be in the near future. But it reminds me of what people do on kickstarter when they want to gun and run.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Friday July 21 2017, @06:43PM (1 child)
What Musk hasn't told anyone yet is that he's going to power this hyperloop from solar cells in the invisible fence on the southern border!
He just needs to be awarded the contract.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 21 2017, @07:50PM
US taxpayers would get better value by awarding construction of Trump's Great Invisible Wall to a Mexican contractor. Sorry Elon.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Friday July 21 2017, @06:44PM (2 children)
Elon tells me the vacuum tube technology is still being worked on. He says it needs a lot of new cyber. Some of the cyber hasn't been worked out yet. He says it's going to be like the EMAILS system on the USS Ford. With electric magnets and modern cyber running it. I asked him: what about steam? What about coal? But he said steam won't work. His vacuum tube train needs brand new cyber that hasn't even been invented yet. Very complicated! So I said to him, Melania likes New York, she wants to be in New York for her shopping. But I want her here sometimes. Here in Washington. So I asked Elon, can he build a little tube to New York for her? So she can go to New York and come back. And so he can try out his vacuum tube and the new cyber. And he said he'll do it. Elon liked my idea and he's going to build a train tube for me. Great guy! And if it works out OK, he'll build a longer tube for me. So I can go to Mar-a-Lago, the Southern White House. And maybe even farther, to Trump National Le Chateau des Palmiers. Which is in France. It's in the Caribbean, but it's in France. Because part of France is an island in the Caribbean (when I told Jeff Sessions he went nuts). Need to get permission from President Macron for that. But he'll love the idea, he's a big fan of mine. And he owes me, big time. Because I shook hands with him. He didn't know about my long-held aversion to shaking hands. Let me tell you, I see people coming out of the bathroom, and they want to shake my hand. Look, if I have to do it, I do it. I’m not a big fan, that when I’m having dinner, and I’m eating, and I’m ready to pick up a roll or something, and a guy walks out of a bathroom and says, Mr. Trump, I’m a big fan of yours, can I shake your hand? Now the good news is you don’t eat the roll, that’s the good news, OK? Because it’s always positive. But, you know, I am not a big fan of the handshake. I think it’s barbaric. They have medical reports all the time. Shaking hands, you catch colds, you catch the flu, you catch it, you catch all sorts of things. Who knows what you don’t catch? Disgusting! #MAGA 🇺🇸
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @07:16PM (1 child)
This is not a good Trump parody. It contains too many details.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 21 2017, @08:24PM
Don't think of it as a tweet, but a Trump rally transcript.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 21 2017, @07:48PM (5 children)
When you look at a picture of the Hyperloop, above ground, it looks like another one of those environmentally fiendly oil pipelines. (I did not say 'friendly'.)
People will be afraid that it will leak.
Irrational fears. Like the more times you write to an SSD, the faster you wear it out. Sooner or later a bearing will go bad and you will get vibration from that SSD. Irrational.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @07:59PM (2 children)
never heard of "write cycles", eh? do some basic research; it's not that hard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @12:36AM
Whoosh!
(Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Sunday July 23 2017, @10:32PM
sounds like you should read that "research" you suggest others do. yeah, we have heard of write cycles, but our knowledge, unlike yours, does not stop at knowing what they are. we also know how many it takes before the drive goes bad. about 20 years of use for my current SSD. About 10 years for the SSD on my old laptop (which 6 year old now).
Do you think maybe when you know less about something you should not try to teach others about it? Of course you don't. You instead try to cover your lack of knowledge by being condescending. Just like you try to pretend you're not ugly as fuck by being an asshole and rejecting the world first - before it ever has a chance to reject you.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 21 2017, @09:22PM
Leak what? Lawyers and stock brokers? People of unpopular urban ethnicities? Your children might learn gang signs!!!
Sounds like "People" shouldn't be in the decision loop then. A representative, constitutionally restricted, democratic republic means that not everyone gets to have a say in everyone else's business.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:11PM
If the vacuum sections are large enough, it will make a mighty Ross Perot (giant sucking sound) when (not if, definitely when) it gets a hole in it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @08:53PM (4 children)
Hyperloop One (lead-off in tfa) is NOT a Musk company. It was formed shortly after Musk went public with his Hyperloop white paper. The stated goal of the Hyperloop One company is to develop Musk's idea, but without any Musk or Tesla ownership.
Here is the company website with board members listed:
https://hyperloop-one.com/team [hyperloop-one.com]
I don't know where the mistake is, but something is not right here...
-----------
The Musk Hyperloop project is a student competition, using pods that are roughly 1/2 sized and testing them in a mile long tube set up next to SpaceX, http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop [spacex.com]
(Score: 2) by n1 on Friday July 21 2017, @09:04PM (3 children)
This is the entire tweet from Musk: "Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins."
So yeah, the Hyperloop One shouldn't be in the summary and has since been edited out of TFA. I will fix the summary.
My opinion now is that Musk has made a smart move, get other people to develop this experimental tech while he makes money off the contracts from the hyperloop companies and govs investing to dig holes, and still gets all the credit for 'creating' it, because he wrote a white-paper of dreams but has minimal risk in the concept failing, but is likely to make many millions as a result of others trying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @09:12PM (1 child)
...and this is why I love SN -- the correction is acknowledged within minutes!
Thank you N1.
Yes -- The Boring Company drills the tunnels (while other people have to raise the money).
Sounds suspiciously like the battery GigaFactory, that will sell lithium batteries to all comers, and is possibly a much bigger company (in actual income) than Tesla could ever hope to be.
Just like Levi Strauss made money selling jeans to the '49'er gold rush prospectors -- probably a lot more money than most of the prospectors made from gold.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Saturday July 22 2017, @12:09AM
It's not possible for the Gigafactory to be bigger than Tesla, given that Tesla own the Gigafactory.
And I haven't heard they have any plans to sell batteries to anyone else anyway. It's all for Tesla cars and Powerwalls.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 21 2017, @09:23PM
The NPR article does not say which Hyperloop company would be working on it (there are multiple [wikipedia.org]) but it does mention the involvement of Musk's The Boring Company, which was supposed to have been Musk's idea for improving car traffic in LA. It almost sounds like that was a cover story for Musk to begin his own Hyperloop development in secret.
Whose company has gotten the "approval"? It sounds like Musk is trying to compete with Hyperloop One and HTT (aside from not pursuing the originally proposed San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route and not competing in the same regions).
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @12:33AM (1 child)
That's worth about as much as the paper it's printed on.
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday July 22 2017, @12:53AM
I am sitting in the Oval Office with a pen in hand. I’ve been here six months. I’m ready to act, pen in hand, believe me. I’m sitting in that office. I have pen in hand. You never had that before. I approved Dakota Access. I approved Keystone XL. And I approved Hyperloop. Verbally, I approved it. When the papers come to me, trust me, I'll sign. Hyperloop is going to be an incredible pipeline, the greatest technology known to man or woman and, frankly, we're very proud of it. #MAGA 🇺🇸
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:48AM (2 children)
Sorry it's not a webpage but it does host an illuminating video.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:16AM (1 child)
This is what MaxVG Vapes commented 9 hours ago:
So that video seems just full of out of context video salad. Like card board on the vacuum tunnel. Not to keep air pressure outside but sand perhaps? and so on.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Tuesday July 25 2017, @05:21AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wCooveugEw
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:11AM (1 child)
1120 km/h or 311 m/s. Just under the speed of sound at STP.
The risk is if he spreads out his attention to far. Too many projects in other words. I guess that is easy if you got brains, lots of money, willing investors, easy access to expensive toys and get do what you love. Knowing your own limits is essential.
Now the important factors are who is risking their money in this project? who will head it? who pays for tunneling and how long will it take? who will pay for the R&D to get hyperloop to work in a real scenario?
Who is this White House insider?
They don't need to worry. It will be force feed from the top down. Also called open your mouth greatly! and swallow because I say so.
What conflicts of interests do we have here? two media companies doesn't sound like they are in competition with a vehicle company?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:11AM
According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by Virindi on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:40AM (1 child)
So he wants to build an airtight tunnel, 6 times longer than the longest tunnel in the world?
The tunnel under the Alps cost $10 billion. Let me guess...he wants taxpayers to pay for it? You're not going to get a return on your investment in this lifetime. Or your childrens'. Or theirs. So, the perfect government project.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @07:53PM
In Musk's favor, the Boring Company website points out that by using guided vehicles (instead of car lanes), the tunnel will be much smaller cross section, so much cheaper to build.
(Score: 1) by redbear762 on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:58PM (2 children)
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JyjSiW0NauY/maxresdefault.jpg [ytimg.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 22 2017, @07:47PM (1 child)
The elephant in the room: who will be the first one to blow up the first Hyperloop?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @07:51PM
> to blow up
Wrong sign: to implode