Elon Musk has backed away from his Hyperloop proposal in recent years. Rumor has it that the Hyperloop test track at the CA SpaceX facility has been demolished to make room for more employee parking. However, no one with good engineering sense could have ever sincerely supported such an idea, meaning that Elon either lacks engineering sense or that he lacks sincerity. To put it quite bluntly, the Hyperloop is one of the worst engineering proposals ever put forward in all of human history.
Technical Feasibility:
Musk envisions a system that propels passenger pods through a low-pressure tube at speeds exceeding 700 miles per hour. However, this concept raises numerous engineering challenges. Creating a near-vacuum environment within a tube over long distances presents significant difficulties in terms of maintaining structural integrity, preventing leaks, and ensuring passenger safety. A cumulative hole even the size of a penny over the course of a mile of hyperloop would render the loop inoperable, making it impossible to maintain the vacuum. The system would require nearly perfect welding (or some other means of sealing the tubes), expensive maintenance, a second layer of “tube” to provide additional protection against damage that could cause catastrophic damage to the primary tube, constant pumping to maintain the vacuum, and you would still need to deal with the problems that arise from the tube’s expansion due to changing temperatures and weather conditions.
Additionally, the proposed air cushion system to support and guide the pods raises questions about stability and control at such extreme velocities. Moreover, and this is a problem that is rarely discussed, moving at supersonic speeds will generate heat that needs to be dissipated: How exactly do you cool a system that, by its very design, must remain a vacuum? In Musk’s white paper, he suggests using water—and storing the steam produced inside the pod. This, of course, would mean that most of the pod’s length would be devoted to storing steam, not to carrying passengers and cargo. This large “steam caboose” somehow never makes it into Musk’s artist renderings.
California is not a great place to attempt this build, by the way, given its tendency towards earthquakes. Geological instability makes all the issues discussed above even more difficult to overcome.
In short, Elon Musk is bringing all the problems of space travel to ground level, while adding the problem of maintaining the vacuum of space. If you want to enjoy the speed advantages of lower air pressure, simply flying at a higher altitude is a much better solution.
Cost and Infrastructure:
Musk misrepresented the immense cost and infrastructure required to implement the Hyperloop system. Musk initially suggested that the project could be built at a fraction of the cost of traditional high-speed rail systems. However, the complexities of constructing a vast network of tubes, acquiring the necessary land rights, and ensuring compliance with stringent safety regulations would likely result in skyrocketing expenses. Moreover, integrating the Hyperloop into existing transportation networks poses additional challenges, including securing rights-of-way and coordinating with other modes of transportation.
Practicality and Accessibility:
While the Hyperloop's proposed speed may seem appealing, its practicality and accessibility raise concerns. Musk envisions a system that shuttles passengers in small pods, accommodating a limited number of people at a time. This raises questions about scalability and the ability to handle mass transportation needs efficiently. Furthermore, the need for dedicated stations and limited access points could significantly impact the system's reach and convenience for the general public. Traffic jams on the way to the hyperloop could easily cost users more time than they save because of its mach 1 performance—people could easily prefer other forms of high-speed rail that offer more redundancy and access points. Two or three high-speed rail systems could be much cheaper than Elon’s one hyperloop, offering more stations, continued accessibility during maintenance, and generally higher passenger capacity.
Competition and Alternatives:
There are cheaper alternatives—including traditional supersonic flight. It is much cheaper to simply take off over the Pacific and fly at supersonic speeds than it is to maintain the hyperloop. Moreover, traditional high-speed rail could provide many of the same advantages as the hyperloop at a fraction of the cost; simply improving more traditional high-speed rail technologies looks far more promising. France’s TGV has already reached 357 mph, half the speed of the proposed hyperloop. At that speed, you could get from LA to San Francisco in an hour. Is all this extra cost worth it to cut a half hour off that time?
Of course, when Musk is pressed on the issue, he will say that he is holding these competitions, and putting forward this idea, in order to get people to think differently about public transportation. He knows that his idea is infeasible. That said, why miseducate people? If he wants to discuss exciting alternatives to existing transportation, why not come up with real alternatives, something that is viable?
Why did Elon peddle a lie with so much enthusiasm? Was he testing the gullibility of the media, the government, and/or the public?