Hello everyone, today I would like to share with you some news about the Hyperloop project. The project involves the creation of a new means of transportation which could compete with the ones that are already available (i.e. cars, trains, ships, planes). Hyperloop was envisioned by the popular entrepreneur Elon Musk back in 2012 as a 5th type of transportation. The idea is that a tube is built between distant locations and a capsule with aerodynamic capabilities is inserted inside to travel through it. A curved tube could create enormous forces that could be intolerable by passengers that is why the route should be as straight as possible. The capsule has to be capable of travel without any kind of wheels which would create friction and slow it down. In fact it is designed to levitate over a magnetically induced surface at speeds exceeding 1220 km/h. This is also how magnetic trains work (maglev) however the main difference here is that engineers are trying to reduce the friction formed by air, hence the tube. Another interesting fact is that Elon Musk made the idea "open" and therefore encouraged many teams around the world to cooperate and work upon it. Currently tests are being performed to check the feasibility of the proposed technologies that involve the project.
For further information you can watch this video:
The article published by SpaceX can be found here:
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf
To encourage discussion I propose the following questions:
1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
Michail – thanks very much for this very interesting material. I have heard before about Elon Musk project of course but Hyperloop is a new one for me. Because I am interested in motorization news my favourite Elon Musk project is of course his Tesla Motors products. I reckon his electric cars can conquer motorization market in the future because their design is very modern and their performance is very high. Finally because of the energy crisis approaching we should seek new alternative energy methods for our life. Electric car is one of them in my opinion. Engineers should develop the idea of Hyperloop because according to Elon Musk opinion it will be cheaper and faster than other means of transport . In my opinion in the future cars or trains will be used only for fun not for real transportation. I hope all disadvantages will be defeated and this kind of transport will bring us safe and cheap opportunity to move. I admire Elon Musk decision to open this project for everybody who can help. In my opinion only open projects can win because only new ideas for the whole the world can discover new technologies and new items.
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for your reply. I agree that in the future the transportation system will probably evolve into a more energy efficient and faster method of moving people and objects and individual vehicles like cars will be used only to get to not so inhabited places. This will be also forced by the fact that cars take too much space on our highways whereas "condesed" vehicles like buses can save on it therefore transporting more people at once and unloading the traffic.
Delete1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDeleteOf course I've heard about it. However, my favourite project is Tesla. Beautiful cars, especially Tesla S and X. Why it's my favourite? Because I love cars and Tesla S is awesome, fast, modern, almost autonomous.
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
Musk have a lot of money, if he thinks it's worth to invest money into project who am I to question it :) Our world needs innovators.
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
This is very common approach. Using this approach can give you more money and opportunity to use know-how from other companies. Most of the time if it's well managed it can boost the project. However, project managed by many comapnies can be problematic in terms of management. With many heads you can have many ideas and many problems, because people tend to argue most of the time. We will see.
Most people like Tesla because it is something they can probably own. :)
DeleteI agree though that having such a car would be really awesome, too bad its so expensive and probably hard to obtain in our country. Also according to the teslamotors map there is only one place in Poland suitable for efficiently charging this car whereas in western Europe there are plenty.
1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDeleteAs far as I remember I saw some info about them in Gazeta Wyborcza last week.
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
It is nice idea but only an idea. For sure in Poland PKP is not interested in it. They have Pendolino -;).
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
I you have not enough many for RND it is always a good idea to make project as an open one. Chances that you will succeed together with other visions are growing. At list you have news advertisements for free.
Well I am afraid Poland wouldn't have a Hyperloop for a long time after its invention however Slovakia is interested in the project and a potential candidate. We could at least have a neighboor which has this technology to try it out. ;)
DeletePeople laugh at Pendolino (probably because we could invest into something even better) but its a better traveling experience as opposed to what was available before.
1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDeleteOf course, I heard about Hyperloop and also about few others. I have no favorite, because I can hardly see any novelty in his projects. Frankly, all of them have been considered before (hard to believe, right?), but seems to be abandoned for economical reasons.
Talking about Hyperloop, the Swiss thought about sort of similar project, that is about building the underground tunnels for extreme high speed railway connecting their major cities. They wanted to use Maglev (AFAIR) and near-vacuum to reduce drag.
Both this, and Hyperloop is technically feasible, but economically hardly makes sense.
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
I am at the crossroads here. I believe investing in technology and science in general is the only way to make progress.
I am doubtful about Hyperloop though. I really doubt anything new will be discovered here. However, history often disapproves such statements, so I have to put a question mark here.
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
The best thing for science is openness. It allows for free flow of ideas and faster progress. On the other hand though, it is a paradise for patent trolls. They may claim right to somebody else's invention. And unfortunately it happened before, so they have to watch out.
Yes I agree with the fact that other people might look to make profit out of science and patent others ideas that were meant to be open and they are careful with this. I read another article about some experimentation spaceX conducted to be prepared with patenting some technology that another company tries to patent.
DeleteI believe that Hyperloop could be feasible but for locations that aren't too distant. I don't remember the exact distance but they calculated that after a certain distance hypersonic travel is more efficient.
Hi,
ReplyDelete1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
Hi , I never heard about Hyperloop and others projects .
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
It is very interesed project and engineers can be focus for this.
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
First of all he open the project and involve companies but from this time it is not his project and he can't sell this for example, in other hands maybe project have a fast development
Hey, I find it quiet extraordinary that you haven't heard about any other projects by Elon Musk. This guy is very popular nowadays, never heard about spaceX or Tesla Motors? Perhaps about PayPal? You probably know the services but didn't know that Elon Musk is behind these.
DeleteMoney shouldn't be most important so I guess the opportunity for increased growth is a great benefit.
1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDeleteUntil now I have not heard about Hyperloop project. But I heard and read anbout SpaceX project and also Tesla cars. My favorite one is SpaceX and it's becouse it can can provide cheaper and faster ways of transportations and maybe even Mars colonisation.
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
As you mentioned there are magnetic trains, this one in Japan can reach 500km/h which is quite fast, they may improve this technology but SpaceX may be more promising and it can be even faster way of transportation than any magnetic train. Also SpaceX can be cheaper than maglev trains, because for this train you need special tracks and also shape of track must be design in special way.
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
I think that Elon Musk knows how costly and risky can be to design something new or to improve something on this level as this train. Costs of R&D can be very large and if you have couple of costly and risky projects you may to want to share it with other companies.
Hyperloop involves developmnet of a whole infrastructure that would support its movement. Rockets only requier a pod however are usually less reliant and the fuel much more expensive. In the long run Hyperloop should be much more profitable.
DeleteAnd yes, he said he is too busy with his other projects so thats probably the main factor that led him to this decision.
1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard about Hyperloop, but I have heard about Elon Musk's SpaceX program. I am not up-to-date with his ideas, so I don't have favourite one.
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
Actually my knowledge about transportation is very small, so it is really difficult to say what technology in this area is the most promising for the future.
In my opinion, one of the most interesting aspects in Elon Musk's idea is its low energy demand.
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
I think it is always good when the ideas and projects are publicly open. It makes a place for analysis, discussions and bringing up new ideas.
I agree that publicly open projects make a great place for discussion and brainstorming over how it should be developed and perhaps will lead to more experiments conducted in the same time to find out the most efficient way of making certain elements of the project according to their development but also usability.
DeleteAt the beginning I would like to admit that this technology is probably first invention that I can't wait to experience in my life. Even more than flying the plane. This is most probably the future of the transportation.
ReplyDelete1. I heard more than ten years ago about Maglev train but Hyperloop are familiar to me for a year or more. This invention is publicly known and was already presented in mainstream news channels television in Poland. I can't answer wherever I heard about Tesla cars earlier or not but for sure I heard earlier about the SpaceX enterprise.
2. And I answer here using a questions: Do we realy need to search for other cheap and ecology transportation? Do we have any other vessel except a supersonic planes to travel at this speed from A and B location? Does Hyperloop are not designed save to avoid disasters for example earthquake?
3.This is a best strategic decision that Elon Mysk could do in my opinion. Do you remember that PC computers where developed in the same idea and they conquered the world because of lot companies anticipated in the successful PC development those days.
Hey I agree that currently we don't have many alternatives to fast and power consumption efficient way of transport. In example the popular Concordes which were supersonic passenger airplanes were uncommissioned in 2003 due to 2001 terrorism events, the planes being very expensive in maintenance and nowadays there is no supersonic commercial passenger plane available.
DeleteI heard about Mr Musk earlier but now I can't recall at which occasion. It seems to me that it was Tesla mentioned by ZC. I belive it could be good direction and engineers should develop this technology. Its very interesting. The establishment of the open project can only help in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree that the "openness" is a beneficial step for the projects faster and overall better development.
DeleteI haven't heard of Hyperloop before. Of course I have heard of Tesla, but from Musk's projects, because of my interest in Machine Learning methods and technologies, I'm most familiar with OpenAI.
ReplyDeleteI think it's worth to invest time and effort to research new technologies, and making the project open can encourage researchers to get involved. Obvious disadvantage is return of investment among project's participants.
Have you heard of any other open projects like this one? Ofcourse there are notable examples in software ones however outside of it, are there that many?
Delete1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDeleteI've heard about Hyperloop before. In fact I'm a big fan of all of Elon Musk's projects. I am currently reading a book about him written by Ashlee Vance. My favorite project is still Tesla but I love the idea of HyperLoop, SpaceX and Solarcity.
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
I am pretty sure that it is worth to invest into this technology. It is already kind of proven after a demo on Nevada desert.
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
I think it is good for his business too. He wants to popularize this technology. He is a great businessman but also an idealist and making the project open is kind of win-win situation.
Cool topic Michail. I'm actually a fan of Elon Musk (still haven't found time to read his biography, though) and I try to follow most of his initiatives. So I obviously heard about Hyperloop before. I really admire what Elon did with space industry, but right now I'm really excited about OpenAI for same reasons as Mikołaj.
ReplyDeleteThere are companies which actively work on Hyperloop and I believe this is a good investment. Elon's decision to open the project is really great. As Emilia mentioned this allows more people to analyse and evaluate the project. I'm pretty sure that in the long run this will spin off new ideas and initiatives which might improve our lives.
Yes I have heard and read about Hyperloop project before :) Kurzweil newsletter was first to publish articles about this project. I think it is an excellent and fascinating idea. It is not new though, it has been around in science fiction literature for awhile. I think it is very well worth investing in. While engineers will for sure seek alternative solution they will not abandon the Hyperloop project. It is simply too good :). I fully support open project idea. It gives equal chances to every participant.
ReplyDeleteThanks for interesting topic. Regarding to your questions: Elon Musk is very interesting person in my opinion. He is visionary, who can exceed era where he lives. I have heard about lot of his projects, which maybe were not completed with 100% success, but were the trigger that inspired others to continue its idea.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of opensource and community projects so if someone can help and has a possibility to improve his idea should connect with Mr. Elon Musk. I hate, when people criticize ideas - if this idea is bad - do it better :). It is easy to tell it is weak idea ... nonsense. That answer regards your question #3 too ;). Have a nice week :)
1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDeleteNo, I did not hear about any Elon’s projects. It is my firs time when I have any connections with that guy. That I would like to say that project from your presentation is my favourite
2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
I thaink it is important to invest into any innovative projects. That could be alternative to many transports and shuttles.
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
It is normal decision to businessman – that I think. This gay has meny projects in processing and in my opinion this is good way. In the other hand – for people it could be interior way.
I've heard about these projects before. I do not have a particular favorite. I believe that work on them will contribute to the development of new technologies. Which ultimately can be used in other industries. Cosmic exploration and the war often contribute to the development of technology. These findings were finding use in completely different industries. With this technology may be the same, creating a new entity - which is worth paying attention and allocate finances - that's my opinion.
ReplyDelete1. Have you heard about Hyperloop before or any other projects envisioned by Elon Musk? Which one is your favourite, and why?
ReplyDelete2. Is it worth to invest into this technology or shall engineers turn their focus into alternatives (if so, then which)?
3. How do you feel about the decision that Elon made to open the project and involve other companies in its development? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this initiative?
This is quite old idea. Fast, easy and cheap communication is an important element of our progress. Of course we can work remotly but if trip to another end of the country or continent
can help to get new job. We should hope that this idea will evolve and that in near future someone will handle with all problems.
Fact that Elon made this public and introduced this to everyone is a fantastic thing. It show what type of person he is. He understands that this is only a concept that can be solved but not
just yet. Thanks to his approach there is a big chance that we will use Hyperloop sooner.
Nice topic. I've read about Hyperloop a few weeks ago. As I remember placing that in our country would short the time needed to travel from Cracow to Gdansk to 35 minutes. I'm afraid to think how expensive it would be to travel by that kind of transportation and how long it would take to earn enough to cover the costs and get a profit. Open project idea is interesting. I'm going to look forward to see the results
ReplyDelete