Sunday, August 11, 2013

Drudge said "mysterious project, revolutionary 'fifth mode' of transportation"


eclipsing trains, planes, boats and automobiles. 

That was one of my guesses! When drudge said "fifth" and you guess what the four would be.
My guesses, some go backwards:

rocket --> airplane --> boats --> cars 

airplane --> train --> car --> boats 

through the air --> across the water --> by wheel over land --> by horse

train --> automobile --> wagon --> skateboard

walking running riding swimming 

kicking flapping rowing rolling

Anyway, billionaire from PayPal and the first non-government guy to dock with space station. 
Elon Musk says 

*will not be vactrain
*does involve a tube but not a vacuum tube
*not frictionless but very low friction
*pod diameter probably around 2m
*tunnel on pylons
*accelerated by rail gun using magnets
*routed out of system near end of journey

*It makes Mr. Musk sad when things are better in the past than in the future. That why the whole project, things should be better in the future so Mr Musk isn't sad.

*Best paired cities less than 1,000 miles apart, [this is why eclipsing cars and planes seems implausible from this point in time] safer than air travel, and if you prefer your old travel you can keep it, and it will be cheeper and passengers with preconditions will not be rejected and now 13 million people who are currently without intercity travel will now be covered. Wait. I'm sorry. I got a little ahead of the article there. 

telegraph, with an interesting picture, concept image,  I cannot be bothered to nick, very racy and meant to appeal to our sexuality subliminally, a slick train punching through a hole. 

10 comments:

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

If they just get some vintage stewardesses for these things we could see the "golden age" of travel return!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Seems like that'd be a good way to do business with the drive-in teller at the bank.

deborah said...

I find myself intrigued.

edutcher said...

Does the word Trojan ever get used?

Palladian said...

The last time a billionaire got everyone excited about a new mode of transportation that would change the world, we got the Segway.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

Anything that requires miles and miles of expensive en-route infrastructure is still thinking inside the box and sacrifices flexibility, speed, environmental impact, and aesthetics. It also won't serve smaller markets, or be built quickly or often.

Staying on the ground is just so pedestrian. If you are going to put me in a capsule and shoot me to my destination, then I don't really need a tube, just a really big catchers mitt in each town.

TTBurnett said...

Too much fragile infrastructure. Maintenance costs?
Doesn't seem intrinsically safe. Catastrophic failures look likely..
Not flexible.
Will the extra speed result in higher throughput to be competitive with current systems? Looks dubious.

Let's get legislation going for a subsidy!

Rabel said...

"The last time a billionaire got everyone excited about a new mode of transportation that would change the world, we got the Segway."

Exactly. Which calls for a little update from none other than the man of the house himself.

deborah said...

Ed, do you mean as the contraceptive, or as in Chip's notion that inner city people will have a way out; the tube will be a Trojan Horse?

Bago, I think you're correct. What a mess. The days seem to be gone where train tracks and subway can be lain down with ease, NIMBY, and all that.