Hyperloop - Open Source Transportation Design Opportunity

[Grzrd]

I just meant to put a real world spin on it. If we cant even get a damn bullet train system started here which isn't even new technology what makes you or anyone think it would be possible to put a totally new type of transportation in?

Musk has a lot of money, and this article indicates that he might be serious about developing Hyperloop, which appears to be very similar to the ETT concept:

... something that's like a "cross between a Concorde, a rail gun, and an air hockey table,” Musk said ...

(above quotes from ETT to Render Fictional Highways Obsolete? thread)

This Telegraph article reports that Elon Musk will publish his plans for the Hyperloop on August 12.  The article quotes Musk as saying that it will not be an ETT "vactrain", but it will have very low friction (in other words, it borrows a lot from the "old" pneumatic tube technology).  In addition, the design will be "open source", Musk's motivation for the concept arose from his frustration with the lack of progress on high-speed rail in California, and he envisions the first project being between Los Angeles and San Francisco (at one-tenth of the cost of high-speed rail).  Further, Musk anticipates that the best use for the concept would be between paired cities less than 1,000 miles apart.

[silverback1065]

Sounds like a good idea I guess. But I can easily see the costs ballooning out of control after several delays. It seems like every time something like this is proposed that happens.

[NE2]

Not going to happen. Because Bengoatse.