Turns out the real hyperloop was the friends we made along the way.
  • dubteedub@beehaw.orgEnglish
    102·
    9 months ago

    It really sucks to see just how much money and time was wasted on such a monumentally stupid idea. I just want to see a string of mea cuplas from all the government officials, venture capitalists, and others that were duped by this and set back the growth of high speed rail by half a decade.

    • admiralteal@kbin.social
      69·
      9 months ago

      One of its primary purposes was literally as a distraction to prevent investment in traditional transportation infrastructure like trains. When a car maker is suggesting some kind of strange new transportation technology, be skeptical always.

      And it wasn’t entirely unsuccessful. Vegas got duped on it (plus boring company) pretty badly, for example. Idiot suckers. But it wasn’t successful enough for the auto mogul Elon Musk to continue throwing money at it I suppose.

    • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      23·
      9 months ago

      Why would they apologize for doing what they were paid to do? The hyperloop’s entire purpose was to keep the personal automobile hopium alive for as long as possible. If anything they’re going to apologize to shareholders for not delaying sensible infrastructure investment further.

    • garrett@infosec.pubEnglish
      6·
      9 months ago

      Especially since this was what was touted as the solution when spiking high speed rail in California… Drives me mad.

  • MJBrune@beehaw.orgEnglish
    50·
    9 months ago

    Elon Musk should get directly sued from the State of California for active sabotage of it’s public infrastructure.

  • heluecht@pirati.ca
    27·
    9 months ago

    @throws_lemy Hyperloop is a solution for a non existing problem. There are already fast landline based systems. You can go really fast on rails (see Japan) or you can use a maglev.

    • naeap
      10·
      9 months ago

      AFAIK the Hyperloop thing was just a push to postpone investment in public transportation until Tesla has some market dominance and be proposed as better green solution than public transport

      • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
        4·
        9 months ago

        Yes I agree

        But if we get enough people to label it as a failure instead of a secret success maybe elon’s ego will prevent him from doing it again in the future. The more failures the public can lay at his feet also means less political pressure to allow him to get away with shit like that.

        So far twitter and hyperloop have been major disasters. Neurolink is probably just a matter of time. Maybe even starlink as it’s way too expensive for most casual uses at the moment, will depend on the price coming down.

        Tesla build quality may come up to bit them in the ass in the long run too.

        I do hope spaceX survives his blundering though.

        • naeap
          3·
          9 months ago

          I find it much more insulting that he took a whole nation for fools

          Edit: but fortunately you’re right about all his failing projects.

    • 4dpuzzle@beehaw.orgEnglish
      7·
      9 months ago

      The biggest reason why I admire SpaceX so much is that they manage to do so much with this hypermoron at the helm. Two other examples besides the hyperloop are the Vegas loop and his vision for neuralink. Apparently, SpaceX has special tactics to stoke his grandiose ego and trick him into giving them the freedom they need.

      • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
        6·
        9 months ago

        Apparently, SpaceX has special tactics to stoke his grandiose ego and trick him into giving them the freedom they need.

        It’s a tale as old as bosses. Many of them have big egos and think that because they’re in charge that magically gives them expertise. So if you want to do something you either get them looking at something shiny or you make them think it’s their idea.

        I had a boss like that ages ago. If I wanted to work on something out of the ordinary I would plant the idea, then a few weeks later I would remind him that he brought it up a while ago. I used the fact that he had a million things going on so he never really remembered who brought it up. I didn’t care that he got the credit because I got to work on cool things and expand my repertoire.

  • bedrooms@kbin.social
    5·
    9 months ago

    the dream that originated with Elon Musk’s so-called “alpha paper” in 2013.

    People better trust actual researchers instead.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

    Click here to see the summary

    Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation startup that promised to whisk us through nearly airless tubes at airline speeds, is shutting down, according to Bloomberg.

    Musk theorized that aerodynamic aluminum capsules filled with passengers or cargo could be propelled through a nearly airless tube at speeds of up to 760mph.

    The company came out of the gate strong, with tens of millions of dollars of funding and a bold vision of hyperloop systems all around the globe.

    A year later, another co-founder, Shervin Pishevar, was ousted amid allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.

    During the pandemic, nearly all of the top executives and founders left Hyperloop One, which also shed the Virgin from its name after the company decided to eschew passenger trips in favor of cargo.

    The Boring Company, Musk’s tunneling operation, is still digging underground passageways in Las Vegas — but for Teslas, not hyperloops.

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