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Does Musk Propose Hyperloop to Stop California High Speed ​​Rail?


Elon Musk at a Hyperloop design competition hosted by SpaceX in August 2017.

Elon Musk at a Hyperloop design competition hosted by SpaceX in August 2017.
image: Damian Dovarganes (AP)

Elon Musk’s speedboat is like most of the more ambitious ideas of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO: that is Slow progressand so far all we’ve seen is unconvincing prototype. Recently Time Article by Paris Marx argues that, when it comes to Hyperloop, this is by design, alleging that Musk proposed the Hyperloop as a way to distract California lawmakers from a long-discussed high-speed rail project. The implication here – that Musk wants to turn down a public transit proposal in the hope of selling more cars – is Acquainted for anyone know American automotive history.

Marx is author of the Road to Nowhere: What’s Wrong With Silicon Valley About The Future Of Transportation. In his Time article, he backs up his claim with a passage from his biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the quest for a great futureby Ashlee Vance. While writing this biography, which was first published in 2017, Vance arranged monthly dinner interviews with Musk and visited Tesla and SpaceX headquarters several times. So I called Vance to try to figure out what’s behind the Hyperloop. Was it an elaborate attempt to sabotage the high-speed rail? Was it another half-baked proposal made by a guy known for his half-baked ideas? Could it be both?

In his Time Article posted online on August 8, Marx offers a legitimate skeptic’s view of Musk’s accomplishments and motives. The the whole article is worth readingbut here’s the part that caught my eye:

Elon Musk has held a virtual monopoly on how we think about the future, but does his vision really lead to a better life for most people in our society? For all the tech industry talks about “disruption,” keeping us all stuck in cars for decades into the future by equipping them with batteries or upgraded computers not like a revolution.

A much more sustainable alternative to mass ownership of electric vehicles is to move people out of cars altogether — requiring serious investment to create a more reliable public transport network, build cycling infrastructure so people can ride bikes safely and revive the rail network after decades of no investment. But Musk has repeatedly tried to get in the way of such alternatives.

He’s got a history of floating false solutions to the limitations of our over-reliance on cars that thwart efforts to provide people with other options. The Boring Company was supposed to deal with traffic, not recreational rides in Las Vegas as it is now. As I wrote In my bookMusk admit told biographer Ashlee Vance that the Hyperloop was only meant to try to get lawmakers to scrap plans to build high-speed rail in California – even though he has no plans to build it.

A few years ago, Musk speak that public transit is “a pain in the ass” when you’re surrounded by strangers, including serial killers, to justify his objections. But the futures contracts that Musk and many others in Silicon Valley sell us are not just about their personal preferences. They are designed to meet business needs and are the cause of many of the problems they claim to solve — if not more.

Marx supported the Hyperloop argument with a link to his own tweetshows a screenshot of the following passage from Vance’s 2017 Musk biography (I emphasized further when Marx highlighted the text):

At the time, it appeared Musk rejected the Hyperloop proposal just to get the public and lawmakers to rethink bullet trains. He didn’t really intend to build this thing. He wants to show people that there are more creative ideas for things that can actually solve problems and move the state forward. With luck, the high-speed rail will be cancelled. Musk talked to me a lot [Ashlee Vance] in a series of e-mails and phone calls that led to the announcement. “Going forward, I could sponsor or advise on a Hyperloop project, but right now I can’t take my eyes off SpaceX or Tesla,” he wrote.

When I talked to Vance, who was currently a senior writer at Bloomberg, he called Marx’s conclusion “ambiguously accurate but a baffling situation.” In Vance’s view, Musk’s initial Hyperloop announcements were “more of a reaction to how overwhelmed California’s high-speed rail is.” [proposal] to be.”

Musk first discussed the idea of ​​a Hyperloop-style high-speed train system in 2012; a year later, in August 2013, Musk publishes white paper proposed a design for a route from Los Angeles to San Francisco where pressurized passenger compartments would travel through a tube system operating under partial vacuum to reach speeds of up to 700 mph. During our conversation, Vance described Musk’s proposal as purely a thought experiment, something Musk had no intention of doing. “Tesla and SpaceX are in more precarious positions than they are today,” Vance told me. “He has a lot on his plate. Elon puts all the ideas out there in the open domain for anyone to use.”

I showed Vance why the idea — that Musk dreamed of the Hyperloop as an attempt to distract from a more conventional, perhaps more realistic rail project — seemed plausible. Musk has many times public transit is described is a dangerous, disgusting hell, and he sells a lot of Teslas in California.

“He’s the richest man in the world, he’s used to his private jet, so maybe public transport is a bit behind him these days,” said Vance, chuckling. “Honestly, I don’t think that’s the goal of Hyperloop. I think if there was a better public transport system, my impression – and I think genuine – is that Elon would be all for it. “

Vance then makes a relevant point: “All the time we’ve been talking about high-speed rail, almost none have been built…. During that time, Elon built build a worldwide electric car charging network and move the whole world to electric cars. ”

“By that point, though, Hyperloop is basically not far off,” I suggested. “We had a tunnel full of Teslas in Las Vegas essentially moving at the same speed as the traffic.”

“The Boring Company is one of the [Musk’s] Vance replied. “I completely understand what you mean. All in all, though, there’s no part of me that believes Elon is trying to kill off public transportation to get people in cars. I just don’t believe it….Elon doesn’t even need to complain about the high-speed rail project because it’s sabotaging itself. “

For Vance, who has spent more time with Elon Musk than most people who don’t work at Tesla or SpaceX, the Hyperloop is a “mythic thought experiment” Musk launched into the world, to which a handful of companies have worked. startups have pursued. He told me: “Half of the physicists have looked at the blank sheet of paper, which is ridiculous. “He just threw this idea over the wall and was like, you guys do it your way…. Is that by him, or is it taken seriously by some of these public officials?”

“If I am a government official and you tell me you have a better, faster, cheaper alternative to high-speed rail, I am inclined to believe you,” I replied. “Is it sin to be the one selling the idea or the one buying it?”

“Elon never actually sold the Hyperloop after the announcement,” Vance said. “Things in the tunnel, I think, are more questionable. I still don’t understand how The Boring Company tunnels faster or better than anyone else. Unlike SpaceX, Tesla, I don’t know if there is any major innovation in tunneling. I just didn’t understand what that breakthrough was.”

“So does Elon try to sell a green project to make money? Or does he just have an idea and come up with it,” I asked Vance.

“I’m 99.9% sure it’s the latter,” Vance told me.





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