Is Elon Musk an earthling?

[kandrathe]

But the hyperloop doesn't get rid of the issues that any other fixed route and mass transit system has.

In the bigger picture, I think of it as modal. Europe benefits from having more modes of transport that have costs and benefits, but still generally compete for customers. Whenever I plan trips there, I make use of automobiles, planes, trains, buses, and even ships. The US is crippled by having few modes of transport, mostly plane, or auto. Some cities in the US have local subway for transport within the city, or localized buses. All in all, though, it is dismally inadequate, and probably economically restrictive.

Pre-911, it was common, that I'd get up, drive to the airport at 7am, hop on a plane at 7:45 and arrive in Chicago at 8:45 or earlier, pick up a rental car, or make other local transport arrangements, and arrive at "Work" by 9:30. Then reverse it all at the end of the day, and arrive home near Minneapolis by 8pm. Post 9-11, you need to add 1-2 hours to both sides, and the whole air travel as short transport fails, it's too expensive to stay overnight for short trips, and driving is also too time consuming.

The goal for any mode of transport needs to be to minimize cost, in terms of fuel, risks and time. What I appreciate about Musk's vision of transport is that it does not try to be all things. The niche for the hyperloop is where it would be conducive to hop into your Tesla, drive to the hyperloop station, and be 1000 miles away in less than an hour, do your business locally, then return home an hour later. With a gasoline engine, you could drive to Chicago, but it takes many hours, and you might only do it with a stay over night. If all you had were an electric car, to drive to Chicago and back may take many days and much logistics planning for hours of recharging, and be very frustrating, not to mention highly unproductive.

This is at least one vision of a potentially feasible hydrocarbon free mode of long transport, depending on how the energy for the hyperloop's batteries are generated.