Gregory's ServerYou've got to be kidding me ๐คฆ๐คฆ๐คฆ
JUST BUILD TRAINS FOR GOODNESSโ SAKE. HYPERLOOP IS IMPOSSIBLE.
 79 comments
 @jmaris Who plants those brainworms into vdL? Can someone take away her WhatsApp chats with industry magnates please? @jmaris Like, if trains don't sound politically appealing enough, take a fraction of the money that would be wasted on #hyperloop and use it for a PR campaign about how great investments into trains and railways would be and invest the rest to make it work. Would still be so much more helpful.  @Gurre Never mistake for malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence, my friend.  @joakimfors @Gurre It's less of a thing in Europe because we already have working High Speed Rail @jmaris @joakimfors  @Gurre @jmaris @joakimfors ๐ฏ I don't know if she's hired outside of the German bubble in her cabinet (which has landed her in trouble in the past), but there's bound to be some toxic FDP bro if not in the team at least vdL-team adjacent who's not very up-to-date on the topic and thought it would sound really hip and with it in a policy document. And others who know it's bs, but eh, it's non-legislative as Jon points out, so let them have it, they'll forget all about by the holidays anyway.  @jmaris @joakimfors @Gurre Right, and the fact that people are still seriously talking about this stuff after Musk publicly admitted that is why this seems like malice rather than incompetence. @jmaris @joakimfors @Gurre @jmaris @joakimfors @Gurre I tried TGV last week, it were slow, crowded and generally underwhelming. @johnrohde @joakimfors @Gurre A french TGV ? On what line? I've never heard of a "slow" TGV. @jmaris @johnrohde @Gurre Perhaps it was one of these: https://tgvshop.org/ Bit crowded if more than one person and looks kinda slow  @jmaris yes, and the maintenance and improvement of that network is a much better use of funds than this pipe dream. Techbros stop trying to reinvent trains but worse challenge 2024. @c0dec0dec0de @joakimfors @Gurre You're not wrong! Calling Hyperloop a pipe dream is my new favourite idea. Nice pun! @joakimfors I'm aware, but I am not convinced that Musk is responsible for this in Europe. Also there are very few organisations in Europe that would profit from this  Billionaire malignancy is transnational. They fund neoliberalism and extremism in Europe. See UK riots etc. In this case it is both. Musk pimped hyperloop to derail (high speed rail) in the US. Here you get both in one package.   @jmaris Gah, stop trying to make pods happen! They're never going to happen! These glossy graphics somehow never include passengers with luggage, children, dogs, bikes etc. @beecycling The PEOPLE want to be STUFFED into the ENORMOUS DEATH BULLET! GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT!  @HarbingerOfSalem As I said, never mistake for malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. I am entirely sure the bribe was incompotently received and will be exposed as incompotently spent I understand what you are saying, and I still put my chips down on Bribe.  @HarbingerOfSalem @jmaris Never mistake for incompetence that which can be explained by greed. @JonnyT @HarbingerOfSalem Believe me, I've worked in politics, and you severely underestimate the role of incompetence. @HarbingerOfSalem I can understand your scepticism, but having worked in Politics, and in particular European politics, I've seen time and time again how Politicians can become absolutely obsessed with some technology, from Blockchain to Metaverse to AI, and yes, Hyperloop, even though it is not commercially and sometimes even technically viable. Really, don't underestimate the role of incompetence. @jmaris @HarbingerOfSalem When it comes to politicians on the right, always assume malice, because it usually is. We will see which fossil fuel company board of directors she joins later. @snakespeare @HarbingerOfSalem In this case, I think you are wrong, I've already said this in replies to other comments, but this doesn't look like bribery or corruption to me, it looks more like an incompetent politician who is pushing for a technology they don't understand after they saw a presentation promising them amazing results.  The VFM of hyperloop is low as it involves high costs to move relatively few people. With few exceptions maglev and hover train and the like have always run into this obstacle. There is a real problem of increasing capacity in public transport systems within constraints, but this is not the solution. Concorde filled a niche but the 747 liberated air travel. This is the same. A glamorous solution that benefits the few, but doesnโt fill the needs of the many.  upon reading the article it looks to me like someone (this van de Pas guy?) convinced her that this is a feasible (and relatively quickly deployable) replacement for private jets that would allow their users to switch w/out a loss of convenience. not sure that would actually work, and almost certainly would siphon off funds for hsr (this is purely conjecture and all the caveats)  @serendip1959 @jmaris But if you intend to use Hyperloop to reduce plane journeys, then you're comparing VFM of hyperloop with VFM of a plane not trains.  "the system is said to be more energy efficient than trains" ahahahahahahahaha what a giant money sink  @jmaris Starting to think that the Monorail episode from the Simpsons never reached its intended audience  @jmaris hyperloop. Hydrogen trains. Flying taxis. AI. Metaverse. Digital twins. Chat control. Algorithmic surveillance. Policymakers keep falling in the trap of tech solutionism, hoping that something more complex can solve old issues, whereas we just need solid infrastructure. @mario 100% agreed. This has been something I spent half a mandate trying to explain to MEPs when I worked in Parliament. Unfortunately it is too often to no avail. @jmaris In part it's a logical consequence of the decision-making structure of the #EU. Many societal problems need to be addressed with tools which are traditionally placed at the state level, and which the EU is precluded from using. So it becomes easier to outsource some hypothetical solution to the private sector and call it subsidiarity. See e.g. the madness of looking for #copyright fixes for issues which scream for EU-level income/wealth taxes, just because taxes need unanimity.  @jmaris Cash Rules Everything Around me. Iโm sure many, many members of government throughout Europe, and in the EU Parliament, are being bribed by muskrat. He gets away with murder in Germany. The German government needs the taxes and jobs from Tesla so bad that they are willing to ignore their own laws when he breaks them. @mhalligan @jmaris lol, I'm kind of hoping he spends billions on the Parliament so we can do the meme again. @mhalligan Musk isn't bribing anyone in EU politics, trust me on that. I think everyone here dramatically overestimates the competence of some politicians, who see a shiny project and push for it with no understanding of the actual technology and its flaws/limitations. @mhalligan @jmaris And now look at Angela Merkel. Same results, 2Nord2Stream, and unless she's blowing it all on online gambling inside her modest Berlin flat... @mhalligan I didn't, but I do have much more insight into how these people think than the layperson, and EU procedures are deliberately too cumbersome and bureaucratic for corruption to go unnoticed for long. We saw it with Yvla Johannsen, we saw it with Eva Kaili.  Impossible you say? "The Hardt Hyperloop vehicle completed its first successful test during the industry event, travelling 90 metres in the 420-metre EHC tube, an open test facility in Veendam, the Netherlands." Sounds like the #Hyperloop will be perfect for trips under 100 meters.  This so reminds me of the "Yunitsky string transport" back in the day (which is hard to google because it's still an ongoing scam).   @jmaris (turbines are stupid in an environment without any air to move) And i suggest watching some YT videos of @thunderf00t who started to explain why the system is dumb before the Xcident @jmaris this is a call for Adam Something. OMG a commissioner caught up in the grift years after hyper-loop is a dead fish. Itโs meant to suck the life out of trains and HSR  @androcat There was an election, the right won more seats. The result is a more "business-friendly" Commission.  This has nothing to do with actual transport policies, it serves only one purpose: Funnel money to some of von der Leyen's friends. This is, what she did as a federal minister, and will continue doing, as long as she holds any power. @jmaris The concept of hyperloop is a smokescreen to distract governments and kill the railroad and tram projects. It is a tactic not a working tech. "Other key unproven aspects include the capsulesโ ability to switch lanes and turn corners. These have not been tested at all." Who needs corners and lane switching? We'll just connect every destination with every other destination in straight lines! @jmaris @spacehobo Are they anti-transit I wonder? Because Hyperloop is sometimes a way of funneling transit money into vapourware so it doesnโt go to building actual transit.  I don't think it's strictly-speaking impossible, but it would be an enormous expenditure of effort with no particular expectation of getting anything particularly useful in return.  @jmaris LOL isn't that the subterranean vehicle from the movie "The Core"? 
But it can be said that hyperloop is a type of high-speed train. At speeds beyond around 400 km/h the air starts being a serious problem so it makes sense to put the train into a tunnel with lower air pressure if you want it to go faster. The practicality of that is questionable though, yes. |
@jon lord help us all