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Comment by bcheung

9 years ago

Telecommuting is a lot cheaper and easier.

Also, what is the point of those rails? Seems like self-driving cars would be much easier and require a lot less.

I think the robotic conveyer belt style design like seen in movies like iRobot would be cheaper and more convenient. Plus, having it so people don't walk to their cars means you don't have to worry about theft in parking garages as much either.

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bcheung

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desdiv  9 years ago

>Also, what is the point of those rails? Seems like self-driving cars would be much easier and require a lot less.

That was my first reaction as well. I think it might have to do with there being no way of expelling the exhaust gas. As long as even just 1% of the cars using the tunnel are fossil fuel powered their exhaust will poison the whole system (carbon monoxide can fuck you up at even just 50 PPM).

They could limit the tunnels to just self-driving electric cars though.

grondilu  9 years ago

This. When Musk came up with his hyperloop idea, I found it odd. It seems to me that transportation nowadays needs two things : supersonic airliners and self-driving vehicles.

The ideal scenario to me is this:

   1. wait for a self-driving car to pick you up,
   2. be driven to a subway/train-station,
   3. take a train to the airport
   4. fly at supersonic/hypersonic speed
   5. repeat previous steps in reverse