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by BinaryIdiot
4035 days ago
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I could see this becoming a new way to transport goods but as outlined in the hyperloop white papers there is little room for error when transporting people and I'm not so sure that's the best, initial approach. I think using this as a delivery system first, prove it out and increase safety as you go along is the way to go. It should be far cheaper to do it on physical goods first (hell you may even be able to skimp on the safety in some aspects), make lots of money transporting things and then work on a people version. |
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- For planes, there were 4,394 near-misses in 2012 [1]
- There were an estimated 5,419,000 automobile accidents in 2010, just in the US, resulting in 32,999 deaths [2]
- And the recent Amtrak train derailment, which could have been prevented (although why the prevention mechanism needs to be in the track, and not on the train itself seems strange). [3] There is also an estimated 2,280 collisions at public/private crossings resulting in 267 deaths in 2014. [4]
The question in my mind is whether the proposed Hyperloop system would be more prone to accident than our current systems of transit. I doubt our current means of transit would fare well under some of the proposed scenarios in the comments.
[1] - http://news.discovery.com/tech/airplane-near-misses-how-ofte...
[2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in...
[3] - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/13/derailed-amtrak-tra...
[4] - http://oli.org/about-us/news/collisions-casulties