The Hyperloop: BUSTED!

British scientist Philip E. Mason ( thunderfoot ) made several skeptical videos on Hyperloop. ▶ this video I highly recommend his whole Busted! series.

Thunderf00t isn't just some average Joe on the street. The guy has a PhD in chemistry and has dedicated a decade to educate the world at large about matters of science and intellectualism. The world would be a better place if we had more Thunderf00ts on YouTube. His videos on the hyperloop are pretty comprehensive and succinct about their reasoning. Why not watch them instead of mindlessly repeating the same strawman argument that every other Elon Musk fanboy/fangirl left on his videos? link ▶ this video

Thunderf00t has a good video on the problems with it. ▶ this video He has some other good videos (solar roadways) but tends to spend to much time bashing creationists.

If you haven't seen the technical criticisms of Hyperloop, Thunderf00t has an interesting video: ▶ this video I haven't seen most of the issues he raises addressed.

The tone and sarcasm of this video aside, the guy makes strong arguments that the Hyperloop cannot work technically. Worth watching as he makes good arguments. ▶ this video edit: actually it can work technically, but it's not practical at all

I'm happy for them, but I'm yet to hear for anybody to address the major challenges that many people have raised. The major one being - the sudden pressurization in any point and the consequent shockwave traveling at the speed of sound, exploding the tube, killing everything in its way. Thunderf00t did a good job summarizing the problems: ▶ this video

I think this needs to be brought to more people's attention, so I'm putting this in a top level comment: Thunderf00t's video: ▶ this video Debunked: link Also debunked: link

The best legitimate criticisms I've seen are here: ▶ this video Basically expansion and contraction as well as just plain vulnerability of running a vacuum make it extremely difficult to do practically. The phrase he uses, "all the problems of space travel except in a gun barrel" is a pretty accurate description of the issue. Any loss of vacuum will almost guarantee loss of life. No realistic demo has been done even on a small scale as of yet.

Apples and oranges false equivocation of vastly different engineering problems. The problem with vacuum trains is they aren't workable with current materials, are impractical, and are too damn expensive. ▶ this video

Related thunderf00t videos: link and ▶ this video Those are for Elon's; Virgin also has a hyperloop which he's covered too: link and link

Elon wields a powerful influence, a cult following. Fault is a fuzzy concept, not restricted to binary blame. Combine the poor taste of Elon fucking around with a monetary instrument, and his cult risking their life savings on his every word, and grave losses are the result. People commit suicide all the time because of large investment losses. Don't be too quick to doubt the monetary and biological loss in the US and abroad his statements likely caused. Your argument hinges on Elon not being the "hand that pulls the trigger." It's really irrelevant as everyone on HN is intelligent enough to understand that Elon is responsible for his reckless persuasions of a populace that is on average, stupid. Yes, the average person is... stupid. Especially ones who worship this man. Here is just a fraction of Elon's record: [1] Pedo Tweet: link [2] Hyperloop Scam: ▶ this video [3] Boring Tunnel Scam: link [4] Autopilot Scam (11 confirmed deaths - should be called Enhanced Cruise Control instead): link [5] Founder of PayPal, a platform that has been freezing and stealing user's funds since 1998: link [6] Not even the founder of Tesla. He was an investor (using his grifted Paypal money - how many frozen accounts did it take?): link [6] Anti-union: link [7] Does not care for wellbeing of employees: link Elon is not Tony Stark or Iron Man. He is not a hero. He is not a villain. He is a highly intelligent man with many blind spots and a penchant for rash, poorly judged decisions. For

related topic: Elon's "Hyperloop" project has gained a lot of criticism too. Many [1] long video essays have been made to debunk why it's not a good invention. Now the hype has died down considerably and it seems a lot of people have lost faith in the idea... maybe they're losing faith in all of Musk's ventures... [1] ▶ this video