What good would the Hyperloop do anyone? It's not much more convenient than a flight, because the proposed Hyperloop stops are as far from SF and LA as the current public airports. The Hyperloop was originally presented as a cheaper alternative to California's high speed rail project. Setting aside the overly optimistic estimates on the price of land in the middle of California, it doesn't even confront one of the primary expenses of the HSR: actually entering each city. Hyperloop would shave very little time off of the flight, taking the distance between the urban centers and the proposed stations, and likely wouldn't be worth the initial expense. Especially compared to well-tested high speed rail systems. However, they're not actually building a public transit system, only a distraction from the infrastructure projects already underway. I'm totally in favor of proof-of-concept distractions.
I agree with much of what you have to say, but bringing a time-competitive competitor to air travel will place pressure on both industries (hyperloop and airlines) for bot cost and convenience. We put up with the non-sense at the airport because it really is the only option for fast travel anywhere on Earth. If there was a choice for some routes we may see both innovate in ways that are beneficial to the consumer.
Elon Musk seems far more interested in technology than he does in marketing or infrastructure. Suppose he wants Hyperloop for what he says he wants it - a replacement for high speed rail to compete with air travel. This doesn't mean he sees SpaceX building lines from San Francisco to LA - it means he sees SpaceX selling or licensing their technology to transit authorities and third parties for integration. One of the big arguments against Tesla's roll-out was a lack of ready fast-charging stations nationwide. Tesla took some of that on the chin; the rest of it they attempted to defray by open-sourcing their charging and battery patents. Again, not a company that wants to build the gas stations, a company that wants to build the cars.
Though, you must admit, they've done a decent job with rolling out their supercharger stations. Just take a look at this supercharger finder available on the Tesla Motors website. They have an uphill battle still and need to put in a lot more superchargers before the argument will go away, but if you look at large metropolitan areas such as Chicago, LA, and New York. They're even spreading throughout other continents, to have superchargers in every continent except for Africa, the Middle East, and of course, Antarctica; though they only have 3 along the western coast of Australia. They only have 445 stations total, yes, but they way they're placed, and with the fact that they don't cost the customer, I think it's really not all bad. As far as marketing, Elon Musk seems to want people to learn about the vehicle more organically. From seeing others on the streets to the cars in the news. It's something I really respect about him, allowing the product to speak for itself.
It might come down to cost. If the ticket is significantly cheaper, then people will opt for it. Perhaps they could run them along railroad tracks or existing roads to save on costs? There is also the possibility that it be used for freight only.Musk has said that for cities less than 900 miles apart, the hyperloop would be faster and cheaper than air travel and better than existing trains in just about every way. It would travel at just under the speed of sound, for passenger comfort and safety.
I think a large reason the Hyperloop is being created (or at least proposed / discussed) is the fact that CA's high speed rail project was a disgusting, bureaucratic mess. The mere fact that Elon Musk, who has become known for making ridiculous and outlandish ideas come to life, has brought attention to this fact is a positive. The fact that the media is talking about it, people are talking about it, is a positive. No one was talking about the fact that the leader of the free world can't build a fucking innovative method of transportation. An out of date, overpriced train system was not and would not have been talked about except for the fact that Elon Musk open sourced an outlandish design with a sci-fi name. And it's fucking awesome. It's fucking EXCITING. The fact that Musk is now asking engineering students - from around the world - to send in proposals for the pod is also a positive. It's innovative. It gets people talking. It gets people excited for the future again. It's not about building something. It's not about making money. It's not about convenience. It's about the future—a future where the US is not in last place building stupid trains for buckets of money. The US is like Microsoft was 2 years ago. Out of date, out of touch, bloated, and ridiculous. Slowly sinking. Unable to build anything innovative. Unable to do anything reasonable. Too obsessed looking in the mirror and the massive amounts of money coming from out-of-touch people and enterprises who haven't upgrade their systems in 15 years either to see that EVERYONE around us is doing new things that people actually want. Hindsight is 20/20. The simple shift in structure and ideation at Microsoft has reinvigorated their position in the tech world. It still may be too late, but the mere fact that they are trying and making substantial changes to their business strategies that are in line with what consumers want and their competitors are doing is enough to give people hope. Too bad Elon Musk is one person who has no real control what the disgusting mess of a bureaucratic system the US has become. Musk '22? (lol)
Building a one mile test track is a pretty far cry from "building Elon Musk's Hyperloop".
Eh. It's a pretty large first step especially considering a year ago, when the announcement was made, it was merely of a fun, hypothetical idea.
I'll be honest. I thought he was trolling with that whole hyperloop thing. But you know what? This is my kind of trolling. Tinfoil hat time: the data SpaceX will get from testing these prototypes is 100% applicable to the development of a launch cannon and allows SpaceX to build up lots of data related to magnetic launchers without having to put up with Gerald Bull bullshit.
The one thing I don't like about the Hyperloop is how impersonal it seems like it would be. Even with the delays, I actually the few times I've taken a train between Detroit and Chicago. It wasn't the luxury (though it did feel very spacious even on a full train), but it was the fact the pretty much every time I got on that train, I talked with people. People sitting around me, people in the food cart, sometimes I struck up conversation with the workers. Maybe a culture of talking to strangers isn't as prominent elsewhere, but a train is a great place for it, as everybody is travelling for some reason that leads to a story. I was on it so that I could go to the Chinese consulate in Chicago to apply last minute for a visa, the German women who got on at the same stop as me was a visiting researcher who had the day before given a guest lecture at a university and was travelling elsewhere in the country now. On my way back I discovered, through a person who decided to sit next to me, that geography is an actual university major (make fun of me as much as you want for not knowing that), and something that people can get very passionate and excited about. I shot the shit with the guy running the food cart. I learned from a Canadian passenger that railway in his province is a lot slower, but never has such drastic delays as the approximately 8 hour one we eventually experienced due to the particularly bad winter. This rant was more set off by the comparison the article made with trains at one point. For replacing domestic flights I suppose it's a great idea, but I want to keep my rail travel and the environment it brings.
28 seats isn't a lot and it doesn't seem like there'd be much room to move around. The layout looks more comparable to a smaller passenger plane, which is why I think it would at least be a good replacement for those. I guess I'd have to see an actual created model to judge well, but I imagine any kind of rapid travel like this is going to expect minimum movement from passengers, for both safety and practicality reasons. Yeah, I wish I had known what to expect beforehand, at least they're upgrading the tracks for ~115 mph travel.