[Keith_McClary]

But wait, there's more ...
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/constructi ... synd_slate

The Hyperloop Transportation Technologies direct public offering is planned for the third quarter of 2015, and the $100 million will be put toward developing a usable prototype.
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/crowdsourc ... ng-public/

Mr Musk has described the design as a cross between Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31646978

[dinopello]

Mr Musk has described the design as a cross between Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31646978

Railguns are Cool !

[Sixstrings]

Ya know.. that is one way to make mass transit popular.. make it roller coaster cool.. people would be lined up around the block, to ride Willy Wonka's Hyperloop.

"Ride the Hyperloop, it's a cross between a railgun and air hockey!"

[Keith_McClary]

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop to Break Ground: 5 Things to Know

[Graeme]

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Becomes Reality as Agreements Secured for 5-Mile Track in California

Back in August 2013, long before Tesla unveiled its plans to offer autopilot features on every new car via over-the-air updates and even longer before Tesla unveiled its plans for its massive Gigafactory and its range of Tesla Energy static energy storage products, Tesla Motors [NASDAQ:TSLA] CEO Elon Musk introduced the world to the idea of the Hyperloop: a super-fast, brand-new type of mass-transit for the 21st century.

Unveiling his design in a preliminary technical paper called Hyperloop Alpha, Musk set out the idea for a transport system which used a series of partially-evacuated elevated cylindrical tubes, large enough for a specially-designed capsule to fit inside. Powered by solar panels set on top of the roof of the tube and set in motion by a linear electric motor set into the tube itself the capsules would travel on a cushion of air at speeds of up to 800 miles per hour, he theorised.

It would be a better, cheaper solution to the $60 billion+ Californian high-speed rail project being planned between Los Angeles and San Francisco, he argued, but admitted that his endeavours at SpaceX and Tesla Motors meant that he would not have time to pursue this project personally. Consequentially, Musk invited academics and investors alike to take up the challenge for themselves to turn the Hyperloop into a reality.

Now it’s happening. Back in January, Musk announced in his usual way that a Hyperloop test track would be built for companies and student teams to test out their Hyperloop pod designs, “most likely in Texas.” But as National Geographic reported last week, multiple companies now exist with the sole purpose of turning Musk’s vision into a reality — and one of them is ready to build a five-mile test-track in California.

transportevolved

[Keith_McClary]

However, Hyperloop is not rail travel. It is, as Musk puts it, a fifth mode of transport (after trains, cars, boats and planes). It’s designed to link Los Angeles to San Francisco; cities hundreds of miles apart that can be connected in an almost straight line over a relative flat landscape. This simply isn’t an option in much of the world.

Ultimately, if Hyperloop happens at all it will be a stand-alone system. It’s no substitute for rail.

http://theconversation.com/the-future-o ... loop-45354
Also on PO news page:
http://peakoil.com/consumption/the-futu ... -hyperloop

[ROCKMAN]

This reminds of the original economics for the Chunnel in England. Turns out they did make a decent estimate of ridership. But what they missed by a mile was how much folks were willing to pay. Last I heard years ago was that the construction debt could never be paid off. Essentially the investors are given the net cash flow for all eternity. Don't recall how that worked out with respect to ROR.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Well, I guess if you can't build the promised Teslas on schedule (due to the seats being too cool, no less), then you may as well distract people with empty promises of a hyperloop to be started real soon now.

http://www.mercurynews.com/60-second-bu ... r-backlash

Tesla Motors shares were down nearly 13 percent at one point during trading Thursday -- its worst day in nearly two years -- before settling on a loss of 8.88 percent, or $24, to $246.13.

...

"It was a surprise to us," said Ben Kallo of Robert W. Baird & Co, according to Bloomberg News. "In the long run 5,000 cars is not a big deal, but it does raise eyebrows about the longer-term ramp."

Analysts at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co lowered their third- and fourth-quarter earnings projections for the company, and Pacific Crest Securities advises investors to wait before buying Tesla stock.

"We remain intrigued by Tesla's longer-term opportunity to drive profitability in its car business, but this formative period of rapidly rising volume is fraught with execution risk," said analyst Brad Erickson, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Given the remaining downside risk to the year, we would look for a better entry point before getting involved."

...

In other news, Tesla has released a security update to address an exploit that could allow hackers to remotely hijack a Mode S, shut down the engine, open doors, and display false information on the dashboard, even after it's been turned off. The hackers who found this exploit say they will reveal the full details at this week's DEFCON hacker conference. And finally, Musk spoke on how Tesla's Model X SUV is the "hardest car to build in the world," particularly with the car's second-row seats.

"It's an amazing seat, a sculptural work of art, but a very tricky thing to get right," Musk said.

In the mean time, maybe focusing on things as simple as car seats and meeting promised delivery dates and volume commitments would be more important than new hyperloop fantasies?

[vox_mundi]

California firm Hyperloop to build Vegas-area test facility (Update)

A California company with visions of building a futuristic transportation system to one day zip people and packages at nearly the speed of sound announced Tuesday it is building a test facility in southern Nevada.

Hyperloop Technologies Inc. and the Nevada governor's office said the 50-acre facility at a fledgling North Las Vegas business park will test a linear electric motor at speeds up to 335 mph—about half the speed envisioned in a full-scale system.

Installation of a 1-kilometer track, a little more than a half-mile, is expected to begin this month at the Mountain View Industrial Park in North Las Vegas. The site is part of a sprawling 28 square miles of undeveloped land known as the Apex Industrial Center about 15 miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas.

The company said testing will start early next year, with full operation projected for early 2017.

Hyperloop Technologies said it was still looking for a site to build a 3-kilometer, or nearly 2-mile test track for more extensive testing. It said the goal is to deliver a commercially viable, fully operational transport system by 2020.

[Newfie]

California firm Hyperloop to build Vegas-area test facility (Update)

A California company with visions of building a futuristic transportation system to one day zip people and packages at nearly the speed of sound announced Tuesday it is building a test facility in southern Nevada.

Hyperloop Technologies Inc. and the Nevada governor's office said the 50-acre facility at a fledgling North Las Vegas business park will test a linear electric motor at speeds up to 335 mph—about half the speed envisioned in a full-scale system.

Installation of a 1-kilometer track, a little more than a half-mile, is expected to begin this month at the Mountain View Industrial Park in North Las Vegas. The site is part of a sprawling 28 square miles of undeveloped land known as the Apex Industrial Center about 15 miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas.

The company said testing will start early next year, with full operation projected for early 2017.

Hyperloop Technologies said it was still looking for a site to build a 3-kilometer, or nearly 2-mile test track for more extensive testing. It said the goal is to deliver a commercially viable, fully operational transport system by 2020.

I would like to see the braking and acceleration curves on that.

Just think about that for a second, is oldsters remember the pony cars back in the 60's that were built for 1/4 mile drag strip racing. So basically this "gentleman" is going to build a passenger vehicle that will reach 335MPH in a quarter mile and the de accelerate back to zero.

I'd love to see the g forces generated to accomplish that.

[vox_mundi]

I would like to see the braking and acceleration curves on that.

Just think about that for a second, is oldsters remember the pony cars back in the 60's that were built for 1/4 mile drag strip racing. So basically this "gentleman" is going to build a passenger vehicle that will reach 335MPH in a quarter mile and the de accelerate back to zero.

I'd love to see the g forces generated to accomplish that.

Business-class on the HyperLoop

[Newfie]

IIRC Max allowed emergency break rate is about 0.11gfor a rail transit passenger vehicle.

This thing is close to 2g.

[Newfie]

Ya know how to kill a room full of passenger transit designers?

Say "Elon Musk", they will all die laughing!

[Newfie]

MANY moons ago I did some work on the Futrex system, century 21. They had a scale model built in South Carolina to demonstrate the switching technology. It had Al Gote's backing when he was VP. And under Bush they sold a system to Manila airport. But the crash happened and air travel tanked taking this project with it.

http://www.futrexinc.com/features.htm

That was a much more well thought out system that has switching which is necessary to build a network. It is also for a non elite ridership so it can actually serve real people in need, not just the monied classes. It could work in urban and suburban environments. It solves problems inherent in traditional elevated systems.

It's DEAD! As is Von Roll (sp?) and MATRA, both of which had working people mover systems that functioned and served a commercial need.

This turkey is 100% marketing hype to solve a non problem for the rich to the benefit of Musk only.

One of very first things you do, you are required by law to do if there are any federal funds, when designing a transit system is to do a Safety and Security Systems Analysis with a Hazards Analysis which points out your risks which you then need to mitigate.

Until this has been done its all just complete BS.

[Newfie]

Newfie, I don't mean to be too dismissive but isn't Futrex a modified monorail? Has that transportation alternative ever really succeeded? Except at the Disney parking lot? (I have to admit that when I went to the site link, my horrible sarcastic brain stem read "System 21 ® Moonbeam Technology" lol)

Yes, exactly, a modified monorail. The problem with monorail systems, and people movers in general, is that they have difficulty in switching between tracks, thus it is hard to build a rail network. It's actually comparatively easy with a rail system, just 2 rails, the track work is a mature technology.

You should see some of the contraptions they come up with for switching!

If you are doing a simple shuttle operation like you see in many airports then these automated people movers (not monorails) work pretty well. The fleet is captive to the guideway and the shop facilities are built in, often hidden under the platform on one end.

As soon as you have to have tracks diverge, 2 or more routes, things get complicated.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in love with Futrex, it's just that it was a much saner design than Hyper loop. By comparison it built on existing technology to try to solve known problems and advantage real working people.

In the past few years I've have been exposed to a couple of interesting technologies including wire pulled systems by Dopplemeyer, an antiquated MATRA system, and I am working with Bombardier on a system replacement. I've been learning a lot. These driverless systems are VERY complex and the safety requirements present a very high bar.

Here is a tid bit for you, did you know the Washington, DC METRO was designed to be driverless? In fact they have operated it that way, with the driver only making PA announcements. I don't think they are doing that now, but could be wrong. Their operation record is far from perfect with several fatal accidents. It's all in the public record.