I really don't see anything different here than any other alpha-stage product development experience.

I'm currently doing a project at my university where we dive deep into the Hyperloop technology. Essentially, we're doing research to see if it is The Next Big Thing® or yet another technology-driven fata morgana. After talking to a bunch of technology and transportation experts, I realized that new innovation need to do two things to be successful: they need to be sufficiently promising in their core technology and in their implementation.

There is a balance to be found between the cynical "I'll see it when it happens" and the naive "We're gonna solve all issues", even (or maybe especially) with alpha products. In order for me to have some faith in their success, I don't need them to have solutions to all the pitfalls I mentioned. But what I am looking for is whether they've reduced the solution space enough to make finding a solution likely. Whether they have a good idea of how they're gonna solve it, even though they haven't solved it yet.

Self-driving cars, for example, still have to find a solution to operating in bad weather conditions. While it still hasn't been solved, there are a few good ideas floating around that might solve it. There's the promise of a solution. The Hyperloop on the other hand needs high-capacity switches and stations connected to other modes to work from a transportation and logistics perspective. So far, I haven't seen a convincing enough attempts at solving those problems, which means that I'm still quite reluctant about its potential success.

I admire their engineering spirit and I hope their project goes well. But if I can point out critical flaws in their design with only cursory knowledge of engineering and three years later there's this:

The prototype appears to be plagued by drainage issues, poor manufacturing controls and fundamental design flaws. Every single promise made about the prototype seems to have fallen flat

...I will call a spade a spade. They haven't really come closer to a design that isn't critically flawed, which is what alpha development is all about.

This should've been a fun hobby for two people who want to learn more about engineering and who want to share that with the world. And that's cool. What it didn't need was the millions of dollars, press, audacious claims and hype that was drummed up around it.

The Apple I was only made because Jobs sold his car. They bootstrapped their way to their minimum-viable-product. These people raised $850,000 from the DOT before their $2.2 million Kickstarter. Don't you think that $850k would have been enough to solve any of the below promises?