When will we see the first Hyperloop be ready for action?

Real Soon Now.

We will all be dead by the time this gets going for real.

Everyone will have objections:

a) environmentalists will gripe about everything they can
b) cities and counties will whine about noise and right of way and taxation
c) the state will slow things down with dozens of impact studies
d) getting government money will be next to impossible.
e) getting private money won’t be any easier with all the other whiners and gripers
f) labor unions will hold things up unless their people get jobs
g) contractors will litigate this to death if theirs is not the contract chosen
h) the cost overruns and additional funding needed as the project goes along will kill it

Although this is a fascinating idea, the practical pieces of running a tube 800 miles up California are almost insurmountable.

This is a great project for a strong federal government. It’s a shame we don’t have one.

While a worthy endeavor, I do not think it is the most pressing need so I do not see it on the horizon any time soon.

Once, several years ago I saw a documentary where they pointed out that almost the entirety of the energy expended by an automobile was used to actually move the auto from point A to point B, not to move your measly little 200 lbs. This was something I, and I would guess the vast majority of people in the US had ever considered before. It is not only obvious and true but constantly ignored, especially in the US with our “More is Better” attitude.

This is the direction we need to be focusing our time, money and effort; personal transportation devices looking toward moving the individual in a more efficient manner without wrapping them up in two tons of steel but still allowing them the flexibility of moving goods and equipment when necessary. At least in the western US where mass transit is not readily available or particularly wanted.

@elbanditoroso Well it’s possible this could be implemented by another country such as China, Japan, or the United Arab Emirates as examples.

@rojo Being able to free up traffic on roadways for moving commerce between cities is one example that comes to mind. As populations continue to rise in the US, it will become very expensive to keep expanding existing interstate infrastructures, not to mention the efficiency and cost of moving people and goods via Hyperloop would be a major competitive advantage in the market.

Musk is also working on the personal transportation issue too. Tesla has been pushing forward, exceeding many people’s expectations. Right now they’re high-end luxury cars, but the intent is to continue to bring down costs over time with more affordable models, like the Tesla Model X and the model they intend to release after that one which should be priced around 30K.

@gorillapaws – and shame on US as a modern country if we let that happen. What a sign of our decline if that occurs,

I guess it is a matter of perspective, I don’t see it happening @gorillapaws., at least not around here. Other than a few larger cities out West, we suffer from urban sprawl. Everything is so spread out. At this point in time, the I-35 corridor is basically one long city from San Antonio to Waco and the area between Waco and Dallas is filling in fast as our Dear Leader Perry keeps begging more people to come live in Texas.
It will not be long before we have one looong city (called, I assume, something along the lines of San AntoMarcoAustiGeorgetRoundTemplWacoHillsbWaxaDallas). Hell, the whole sign would take up two billboards. And, I believe the East Coast also suffers from this.
I could see a Hyperloop along this corridor but once I get from Dallas to San Antonio, the problem has just begun. Right now San Antonio encompasses approximately 460 square miles and is only going to get broader. That is a lot of territory to cover on foot or even in a cab. They have no underground and an abysmal, almost non-existent bus service. Even if you put Hyperloop substations interspersed around the city it would still be a nightmare both in the initial construction and in the implementation. Getting from point A to, say, point J would probably require several intermediate stops and the transfers would eat up any time savings. And that is assuming that a Hyperloop can work for short hops. I assume it has to build up a head of steam, so to speak, and does not immediately start out at 700 mph.

And we haven’t even addressed the problem of getting people out of their cars. Cars here are a necessity, not a luxury. As I said, everything has sprawled out. Most families own at least one auto, usually more. Children hit sixteen and have come to expect their own car at that point so it is not at all unusual for a family of five to have four cars, at least for a few years while the kids are teens. And, how do you bring about the demise of the pickup truck? Do we build Hyperloops that you drive your truck onto to get where you are going?

Actually, here in Texas and much of the Southwest, this would be a much better idea, A huge Hyperloop system that transports personal vehicles so you can get where you are going much quicker and still be able to get around once you get there.

@rojo In the plans there are 2 versions, the first is a passenger only pod, and the second is for passengers + vehicles (or freight).

Do you think it can be priced such that it is cheaper drive to a central hub, load up your pickup truck, be whisked away to another central hub then drive to your actual destination than to just drive there directly? Assuming that time is not the greatest determining factor?

@rojo In one of the articles I read analyzing the Hyperloop, they mentioned an Austin – Dallas Hyperloop as being an easier route to do an initial version. which would be a shorter pipe (185 miles) in a state with fewer regulations and union issues. I looked it up and it’s about 3.5 hours by car. The LA SF route outlined in Musk’s paper quoted a ticket price of $20 each way. This track would be significantly shorter than that and likely considerably less costly which would translate into a signifcantly cheaper ticket price. However I don’t know if there would be sufficient demand for such a pipeline like there would with the SF – LA route.

Obviously for very short distances, this doesn’t make much sense, nor does it make sense for very long distances. Musk said it should be less than 1000 miles.