Making your sandwich how you want it

I was reading the Hyperloop PDF yesterday.Leave work in the bay and head to Nobu Sushi in Malibu for the night and get home before 10? I’m down

Here are a few things that really jumped out at me:

1. Simple and Crazy - Elon is a crazy guy. You always hear about the Tony Stark comparison but I’m starting to believe it more and more. Elon breaks this problem down to its simplest form. I like simple. He says look, things suck right now and we can make them better. Most people would think about how can we make flying cheaper for everyone, how can we speed up the train process. Elon says forget that and proposes an entire new form of transportation. The 5th mode? If that isn’t thinking outside the box I’m not sure what is.
2. Puts a solution in undeniable terms - “Look cars are slow and cheap, planes are fast and expensive, and trains take up too much of a footprint for the lack of return.”
3. Reasoning for open source - With as big of a deal that this is coming out to be I find it hard to believe that Elon wants to simply put this out there for the world to roll with for the sake of humanity. I definitely think that he wouldn’t mind his legacy to become more concrete but I read a very interesting comment on reddit yesterday. Borderline scary when you think about the power and smarts that one man can have over public opinion and action. “One very interesting bit: it uses the same type of motor technology as the Tesla S (just in a different configuration) placed every 70 miles. Guess what that means? Whatever technology you’re using to power those motors can also be tapped into to create a charging station for your Tesla every 70 (or less) miles, right along the highway. Get the state/feds to fund the construction, then your private company taps into the infrastructure to develop electric "filling stations.” As more Hyperloops are built, a nationwide network of electric filling stations is automatically created without a private company having to foot the bill for infrastructure development.“

Lets sum this up

If Hyperloop were built

• Elon would continue to add to his already legendary legacy
• A grid of electric generators that Telsa can use to regenerate would be built around the US with states/feds funding
• Elon now has a hugggge area that he can place solar panels. He can kill two birds with one stone and work the PR/Hyperloop card when working out land contracts while placing panels around. With solar panels on top of all the miles of tubes he’ll be able to spread his electric wings into many more industries.
• His status with the ladies will probably go up - I mean lets be honest here.

I am really curious to hear about a response from the CA High Speed rail people on this one. Elon said that he could see construction for this happening in 3-4 years. What does that mean for the SF Transamerica building? Whats it mean for the high speed rail?

Would CA want to get into a project piss test or help support hyperloop?

August 13th, 2013 2:07pm hyperloop elon musk