- This is what I think is the biggest misunderstanding. He's not building anything. He's made that abundantly clear. He has zero intention of building the Hyperloop or any incarnation thereof. He's prompting a conversation, greasing the wheels of thought for a potential alternative to HSR. Good, let's see what does or does not come of it.
Right. But if I say "I want to build a mach 2 tunnel under Bakersfield" I'm a crazed moron. If Elon Musk does it, though, he must know something we don't, after all, he's a visionary.
SpaceX and Tesla are any other startup sprinkled with money. The roadster was a Lotus Elise with an electric motor - I've built Land Rovers with electric motors, it ain't no thing. The Model S in 2013 is pretty much exactly where the GM EV1 was in 2003. As far as SpaceX, rockets aren't easy to make, but it's not like Peenemunde wasn't 70 years ago. There's some prior art there... and when you've spent $1.2 billion dollars, you're within spitting distance of the original Mercury Program.
Elon Musk isn't an inventor, he's an entrepreneur. He didn't come up with Paypal, he bought it. He didn't invent the electric car, he invested in it. He didn't invent the rocket, he privatized it. And Hyperloop is orders of magnitude wonkier than anything even the craziest of crazies have thought up. It makes the Space Elevator look like a come-along.
- Elon Musk isn't an inventor, he's an entrepreneur.
The fact that he is an entrepreneur gives me hope. Why? Because I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty good at leading teams and product development. Who knows, maybe someday I'll build a space elevator.
By the way, if you had an idea for a "mach 2 tunnel under Bakersfield", I'd at least read it. You're a hell of a writer.
- Perhaps why I have such an affection for the guy.
...and I'm down with that. But as an entrepreneur, the path to success is to go buy lunch for some of your pet scientists and engineers and say "hey guys, I'm filthy fucking rich and I feel like building a Mach 2 tunnel under Bakersfield. What do you think?"
This gives them an opportunity to say "Hey, Elon, you're dope and all and Teslas are some of the sexiest electric cars ever made, but there's a reason nobody rides around in bank tubes, despite their invention in 1836. Maybe we could, I dunno, cure cancer or start an Ekranoplan company or something instead. We're more likely to succeed and that way you don't look quite so much like a toenail collector."
I suspect this happened and he was annoyed that those with half a clue told him he had none, so he went around them and said
"I'm not going to invest in this (because my peeps told me it was a batshit insane idea) but somebody should (so that if it works I still get credit). It'd totally work, I ran the numbers (based on the fact that I have no expertise in this subject whatsoever). KTHXBYE."
- By the way, if you had an idea for a "mach 2 tunnel under Bakersfield", I'd at least read it. You're a hell of a writer.
Robert Heinlein envisioned a world encircled by slidewalks. He was a hell of a writer, too, but that didn't lead to their adaptation outside of airports and subway terminals.
- "I'm not going to invest in this (because my peeps told me it was a batshit insane idea) but somebody should (so that if it works I still get credit). It'd totally work, I ran the numbers (based on the fact that I have no expertise in this subject whatsoever). KTHXBYE."
Still, it's worth having the idea out there and having people talking about it, even if to say "this is crazy... but this tangential idea isn't so crazy..."
But yeah, if it were a fool proof plan, it would be called the TeslaLoop or Loop-X.