Hyperloop One is reportedly shutting down::One of the longest-running hyperloop startups is reportedly shutting its doors. Hyperloop One, once backed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, will cease
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As a Californian, the state should sue for damages and use the funds for high speed rail. The entire hype around this stupid tech was to torpedo high speed rail in the state so Musk could sell more cars. I get that this is Branson’s spinoff, but the tech isn’t viable and all the investor hype around it was just a smokescreen for public policy control and that HAS to result in some sort of reparations, it’s basically fraud in my opinion. The assets should be sold off and put towards public transit.
The Hyperloop scam to kill high speed rail implementation:
https://lovetransit.substack.com/p/the-hyperloop-is-a-scam-by-elon-musk
Dubai port operator DP World wound up with majority control of the startup, and pivoted its focus to cargo in early 2022, cutting half the staff at the time and dropping the Virgin moniker.
It makes sense that they’d drop the name Virgin after DP world took over.
To everyone implying that Elon leveraged the concept of hyperloop to kill high speed rail in California:
California killed high speed rail in California. The project is like 3x over budget with no real end in sight. If Elon dedicated his entire net worth in 2013 to the project it would still be over budget.
Hsr isn’t dead, it’s still being actively built, employing thousands of people, still has broad public support and just got a shit ton of funding from the feds. It’s over budget and delayed yes but so was the original shinkansen because bootstrapping that kind of project and industrial knowledge is hard.
I would absolutely love for this to be true, but I don’t really have faith in a project that has had so many issues. I think there will end up being more cost overruns, more finger pointing, and more failures. I half expect Brightline to both start and finish their LA to Vegas rail before this project comes to its final conclusion.
Oh definitely, I don’t see it getting to SF before the bright line opens and I don’t see it getting to la in the next decade. But the bright line is using tried and tested technology and methods, while hsr is building from scratch.
It’ll take a long time but it will eventually get done, because there is still a will, not a strong one, to get it done. Most Californians recognize the immense value it will bring and will keep pushing for it.
Oh definitely, I don’t see it getting to SF before the bright line opens and I don’t see it getting to la in the next decade. But the bright line is using more tried and tested technology and methods in a significantly less populated area on an established corridor, while hsr is building from scratch through the heartland of California.
It’ll take a long time but it will eventually get done, because there is still a will, not a strong one, to get it done. Most Californians recognize the immense value it will bring and will keep pushing for it.
Elon said himself that he did it to kill HSR lmao
Okay but Elon also makes crazy grandiose statements on a daily basis.
No, he legitimately didn’t want that specific HSR plan to happen and wanted to get it stopped.
He thought it was going to be to expensive, slow and already be outdated by the time it was finally built.
There are already faster trains being built today and he wanted them to do something better.
Most people turn that into he is 100% against high speed rail and make it a conspiracy about wanting to sell more cars.
We won’t ever know the truth.
He did it to kill that specific plan.
He wanted something better.
You can either take him at his word, or fall into the conspiracy camp of selling more cars, but thats the 2 options you get.
