Elon Musk Will Build a Hyperloop Track for Ultra-High Speed Transport Tests
I am very surprised this is being built. Who is paying for it?<p>I am all for new ideas, but the Hyperloop has some safety concerns that need to be ironed out. Even the Channel Tunnel is substantially safer than the Hyperloop's initial design.<p>For example, if a "train" (pod?) breaks down or gets stuck between stations how do you rescue people? It is a low atmosphere tunnel, you cannot just walk down it, it might take hours to re-compress, plus you're well off the ground so cannot just cut a hole...<p>What if a fire breaks out on the train? Nowhere to run. So will you build it up to aircraft level-safety standards?<p>Also how will stations work? You have low atmosphere tunnels, but stations have to be normal breathable spaces, so are they going to have decompression chambers? And if they are then you have to design trains which can be decompressed and recompressed (see aircraft).<p>Plus these tunnels will have to be pretty large when you consider disabled people and luggage. The initial design showed a super low profile train, so much so that it was impractical for normal commuters, even relative to aircraft. The real thing would have to be much bigger (like road-tunnel sized).<p>Overall building this is possible. But essentially you're building a fully functional aircraft in a tube with all of the same issues and limitations that go along with air travel. If something "bad" happens then it will get very bad very quickly (like aircraft). So safety has to be aircraft grade too...