Author |yy
Source| Jiguo Editorial Department
How long do you think it will take to get from Beijing to New York in the future?
Musk's answer is: 2 hours!
Even with Tesla, SpaceX, and the world's richest man, the man known as "Real Iron Man" has never stopped frantically exploring cutting-edge technology. #数码科技要闻 #
This time, he hit the idea on the hyperloop again.
April 26 news, on Sunday, local time in the United States, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that its tunneling company The Boring Company (also known as "Boring Company") will try to build a "hyperloop transportation system" in the next few years.
Hyperloop is a conceived hyper-high-speed transportation system that is suitable for both commuters and the delivery of goods. Musk first proposed the concept in 2012, calling it a new mode of transportation that is weather-free, collision-free, twice as fast as an airplane, and energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
“...... From a known physical point of view, this is the fastest way to get from one city center to another (less than 3200 kilometers). Musk wrote in a tweet.
Although many companies and groups are currently working on the technology, so far there has not been any actual system that can be used by public passengers. But now Musk has given everyone a reassurance, and this situation will change in the next few years.
This "big pie" painted by Musk has begun to make people give high hopes for hyperloop, as for the "hyperloop" thing, is it really reliable?
The so-called "Hyperloop", the English name Hyperloop, can be understood as a capsule train running at high speed in a vacuum pipe.
Vacuum duct, magnetic levitation or air cushion suspension designs greatly reduce drag and friction during train operation, while linear induction motors and air compressors power it to achieve faster speeds than modern jetliners, with the ultimate goal of reaching speeds of 4,000 kilometers per hour.
Musk envisions a vacuum-capsule high-speed rail that takes 2 hours to travel from Beijing to New York, and the budget cost is only one-tenth of that of the average high-speed rail.
And he thinks. The essential purpose of human trains is to send people from the starting point to the end, not necessarily with traction.
According to the demo video, the Hyperloop uses electromagnetic propulsion of member cabins to transport passengers between cities at the speed of jets.
According to the introduction, hyperloop application conditions are harsh, requiring operation in a vacuum pipe environment, reducing air resistance to 0, and operating in an environment close to vacuum.
The passenger compartments are separated, each cabin carries a small number of passengers, and can currently transport passengers to different destinations at a speed of 1070km/h.
At the same time, its battery-powered system is more efficient than today's maglev trains and does not produce direct emissions.
Musk's initial thoughts about hyperloop came from a traffic jam in New York, and the two-hour congestion made him feel like a waste of time.
However, the real reason is probably that the US high-speed rail project is really not powerful.
In the United States, with the exception of National Rail Passenger, which has tracks with speeds of 150 miles per hour (about 241 kilometers) in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the speed limit of the rail network in other regions is mostly within 110 miles ( about 177 kilometers ) . If we look at China, high-speed rail with a speed of up to 250 kilometers or even 400 kilometers per hour is very common.
Of course, this situation is not without change, after Obama vowed to "let 80% of Americans sit on high-speed rail", but high-speed rail construction projects have been slow so far.
For example, the famous California high-speed rail project was launched as early as 2008. The high-speed rail line connects San Francisco with Los Angeles, with a mileage of 826.8 kilometers, a total investment of $77.3 billion, and a maximum design speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
However, this repair has been 14 years, and it has not been repaired so far, becoming a "world-class rotten project".
A few months ago, California decided to restart the project, and many American netizens were still not optimistic, and even complained, "Outsource to Chinese, they will get it for $10 billion, and it will be as fast as lightning."
In response, the head of the consulting firm for the California high-speed rail project said that only $66 billion is spent on building the railway in the infrastructure law. The cost of land acquisition, relocation of public facilities, and demand for safety barriers during the construction process is much higher than expected. Therefore, the resistance to the construction of high-speed rail in the United States is too much.
Musk also derided it as "the slowest but most expensive high-speed rail in the world." So it's no wonder he's so obsessed with his hyperloop project, at least it looks more reliable than the U.S. high-speed rail construction plan.
But then again, whether the hyperloop can really land, it is difficult to say, there are at least three major difficulties to overcome.
The first is the low-cost construction of vacuum pipes, that is, how to achieve and maintain a large volume of low-vacuum space at low cost. The second is the power system - hyperloop needs to use linear traction technology, but the current efficacy of this technology can not meet its power needs, need to be improved.
Third, the current magnetic levitation technology is not stable enough for hyperloop. James Powell, the co-proposer of the previous superconducting magnetic levitation concept, has warned that hyperloop needs to maintain the track error within a fairly small value and needs to maintain a state close to vacuum, which is still quite difficult for current technology.
"The whole system is extremely fragile, and even if one point fails, it can lead to disaster." Powell said.
Hyperloop has also been publicly opposed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who directly said in a public interview column that it is difficult to understand the practical significance of the Hyperloop hyperloop project advocated by Musk, especially that the hyperloop concept has an insurmountable threshold in achieving operational safety.
In addition to this, construction costs are the biggest obstacle. Previously, Richard Branson's virgin Hyperloop One company had calculated the cost of the planned Missouri hyperloop project and concluded that it was $40 million per mile, which looked many times more expensive than the regular high-speed rail.
Even Musk himself has reluctantly admitted that the hyperloop project connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles is estimated to cost about $70 billion, and may even cost more than $100 billion, and when completed, it may not be more popular than airplanes.
Finally, there is the issue of regulation in terms of safety, although so far, the regulatory framework for hyperloop does not exist. In March 2019, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao planned to set up a "non-traditional emergency technical committee" in Austin to provide a regulatory framework for high-tech projects such as hyperloop and driverless cars. But three years on, the committee hasn't made any regulatory moves.
So in general, Musk's hyperloop dream will have to be done for a while.