Re: The Hyperloop Manifesto
Author: mook
Date: 07-05-2015 - 09:33
> ... government money?
Interesting question. Supposedly hyperloop is all "private enterprise" so far. But everything else Musk has done and is doing has LOTS of government support - directly (like buying trips at research-grade prices from SpaceX) or indirectly (Tesla would be dead and gone without the green tax breaks and "credits" to sell). If the intent is to use I-5 then I don't expect Musk will volunteer to pay for the easement, and he will certainly get whatever status is needed to exercise eminent domain where it's necessary to cross farmland to eliminate/ease curves. Is that "government money?" It's arguable, but in one way or another a hyperloop thing will almost certainly need some.
Will it need as much as conventional HSR? Possibly not, but who knows? IMO the question is academic, because HSR is still needed for interregional trips with a Valley trip end, much as Amtrak and buses are still needed to handle intra-regional and local trips.
At least the Manifesto did briefly mention one thing that will affect both hyperloop and (more substantially) conventional mass transit like HSR, Amtrak, and regional air: electric, self-driving cars. Assuming electric-car infrastructure and electric-car range improve dramatically over the next decade or so, and self-driving cars become practical, or even mandatory in limited circumstances (remember the sci-fi & PopSci stories of the '50s about requirements for self-driving cars on freeways?), the whole demand picture for medium distance (up to 300 miles or so) mass transit may change.