[ronaldx]

Flight is still the safest form of transport (per passenger mile, it's hardly even close) e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/736582.stm

Engine failure doesn't kill people, because you can typically glide to a landing. Speculatively, if you got your glide ratio perfect and launched high enough, you might not need an engine to get between LA and SF.

[Aqueous]

Anything looks good next to cars :-)

But yeah, flight is comparatively one of the safest ways to travel. But, in principle, it is still quite risky. A lot has to go right for an aircraft to successfully take off, fly, and land. Air speed must be maintained, the engines must remain mechanically sound, landing gear must be operating correctly, hydraulics on the wing and tail flaps must be operating, the pilot must be competent and alert. Countless systems must be working correctly. Any one of these things going wrong can result in mass casualties. Statistically our standards of operation are so high that flight is effectively safer than the automobile or trains or even lightning, as the article points out. But 1 in 12 million is still far from the effective 100% safety that Musk is promising for hyperloop.

[Nogwater]

That would be one hell of a glide ratio. A little research on Wikipedia tells me that modern sailplanes get a glide ratio of something like 50:1. It's roughly 350 miles from LA to SF, so you're looking at launching from about 37,000 ft. This sounds doable, but I don't know if it really works like that. Can they keep the same glide ratio at that altitude? What about weather conditions? What about Elon's claim of 30 minutes for the trip?