
Startup wants you to fund Hyperloop, and help design it too - ph0rque
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57600528-76/startup-wants-you-to-fund-hyperloop-and-help-design-it-too/
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simonebrunozzi
I think this is a good thing. Let me explain.

1) You can think that there are hundreds of OTHER things worth pursuing,
instead of spending time on a project that is very hard to complete,
expensive, and benefits (initially) only a small fraction of the world's
population. Myself, I'd rather improve public trasportation in both SF and LA,
instead of focusing on the Hyperloop. But there are people willing to spend
some time to tinker with the idea. Let them do it.

2) They might not be successful, but they are sparking a discussion on
transportation, technology, and government. Having a discussion is healthy,
and needed.

Good luck!

~~~
wavesounds
It's more important then that. Hyperloop is our best bet to stop California
from wasting 60 to 100 Billion (60,000-100,000 Million) dollars on a "High
Speed" train that is going to be the 2nd slowest in the world.

~~~
melling
It's so costly because the land in California is so expensive. The Hyperloop
is going to avoid much of this by taking an indirect route and making up for
it with the extra speed. Wait other couple of decades and you'll have more
people to move out of the way of the Hyperloop too.

Maybe we should have a little better urban planning and start preparing for
low-speed and high-speed maglevs now?

~~~
clarky07
That's not actually true. Last estimates I saw said that the right of way was
only costing a few (1-3 i think) billion of the total cost.

~~~
melling
One of Elon's criticisms was that the CA HSR would need to acquire 1100
parcels of land.

[http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/could-the-
hyperloop...](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/could-the-hyperloop-
really-cost-6-billion-critics-say-no/)

Can you post where you got your numbers?

~~~
clarky07
I'd love to but after quite a bit of searching I can't find them. I did see
that Musk quoted 1 bil for right of way on the hyperloop, so my numbers must
be off some. I'm pretty sure it still isn't the majority of the cost by any
stretch. perhaps 10 bil out of the 70 proposed. If i find the article I'll
update this post.

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MrBuddyCasino
I like the idea, but have my doubts that 'design by commitee' is going to work
better here than it usually does.

Also, the required funding is enormous - not sure if they mean financing the
whole project? That would be outside anything JumpStartFund / Kickstarter /
whatever could collect.

~~~
retube
Well you'd initially fund a scaled-down prototype, not try to build the whole
thing immediately from scratch.

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harimau
The HSR is a boondoggle in its current state because of politics and land
value in this state. Hyperloop will run into similar problems w/ NIMBYs, local
governments, etc. Whereas Hyperloop can transport only 7.4 million people a
year, HSR has the potential to transport 117 million. The Hyperloop is a neat
concept and it's great that there's greater discussion on transportation
issues but it won't solve the major outstanding issues with bringing quality
mass-transit to California, and the US in general, which is people and
political will.

~~~
alcari
How many of those 117 million people will HSR be transporting from LA to SF?

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jdmitch
to vote for the hyperloop on jumpstartfund, go to
[http://www.jumpstartfund.com/index.php/hyperloop.html](http://www.jumpstartfund.com/index.php/hyperloop.html)

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logicallee
There are 9 million millionaires in America. If each of them commmitted just
$67,000 it would exceed Musk's budget...by a factor of 100!

iow each millionaire would have to commit just $670. Wow.

We need a kickstarter for millionaires, and oh btw everyone could join even
without being a millionaire. And it could be open world-wide.

Why not do this?

It seems somehow more reasonable than a $6B Indiegogo project.... (Which would
be hilarious.)

~~~
tehwalrus
Umm... If you have a way to get 9 million people to agree on something, why
aren't you president of a small European country yet?

Also, if you think it's easy to get $6,700 out of a millionaire, perhaps you
aren't understanding why they're millionaires.

~~~
danielweber
But think of all the cool tings I could do if they just gave me their money.

