WEBVTT - Update: Hyperloop and the Boring Podcast 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.720 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.800 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.799 And how the tech are you? I've been better? Uh. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.040 Those who follow me on Twitter probably saw that despite 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:31.320 all of my careful behavior, being vaccinated and boosted and 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.879 wearing masks and all that, I still managed apparently to 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:41.040 catch COVID. I feel mostly okay, uh, And I'm actually 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.559 getting a different kind of test tomorrow to make certain 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.280 that this is a truly a positive case and not 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.080 a false positive, because the results I got were very 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:56.440 faint but within the realm of saying that's a positive results. 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:02.320 So I'm taking all precautions. Isolated in my house, and 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.839 I dealing with all that meant that I wasn't quite 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.160 ready to have a full new episode for you. However, 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:13.960 in Seen, I recorded an episode titled hyper Loop and 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:18.000 the Boring Podcast, which in itself was an update to 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:22.880 a two thousand thirteen episode titled The Hype about hyper Loop, 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:25.160 and I figured it was it was time for a 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.520 quick update on what's been going on in the hyper 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.560 loop world since two thousand seventeen. But you know, I 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:33.800 there's no reason for me to re record like a 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.319 whole episode about hyper loop I have done that, and 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.240 so I thought instead is I would play the two 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.440 thousand seventeen episode and then at the end. This is 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.880 a long episode, but at the end of that I 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:51.280 will give you some updates about the specific hyper loop 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.520 one company that kind of emerged from all this. There 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.240 are other companies all around the world that are also 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.520 building out variations on the hyper loop design. Some of 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.640 them are so far removed from the hyper loop design 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.720 that I wouldn't even call them that anymore. But I'm 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:12.079 specifically focusing on kind of the O G hyper Loop company. Also, 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.480 this was this episode that you're about to here. It 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.640 was recorded right at the tail end of my time 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:22.080 with how stuff Works dot Com, before stuff Media, which 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.040 was like the podcast arm of How Stuff Works spun 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.880 out from the company, and then of course I Heart 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.960 Media subsequently acquired stuff Media. So this is a real 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:34.919 blast from the past. I listened to a little bit 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.880 of it and I was like, oh, yeah, that's what 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.040 two thousand seventeen was like. But enjoy this episode from 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.840 I'll be back at the end with some updates I'm 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.320 so enthusiastic in fact, that I'm going to revisit a 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.480 topic that we covered way back in two thousand thirteen. 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.840 That would be hyper loop. Yeah, that's when we published 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.959 the episode titled the Hype About hyper Loop, because I'm 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.720 clever with headlines, y'all. Since that time, we've had a 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:09.040 couple of startups that formed in order to pour in money, time, 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:14.080 resources effort to make hyper loop into a reality, change 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.679 it from just this interesting vision Elon Musk had into 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.359 an actual form of transportation. So I thought it would 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.400 behoove us to revisit the topic and see where things 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.480 stand now. Plus I can use the word behoove again. 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.040 That's twice in the same day. I'm recording this. The 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.680 same day I did a live stream about the game 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:38.720 Dungeons and Dragons on a show called Game Changers. Behoof 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.160 is my word of the day. Anyway, I can also 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:48.119 talk about a really boring company, and that's what's called foreshadowing. Now, 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.920 before I jump into the latest news, I should go 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.560 back over the history of the hyper loop concept and 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.840 explain not just where it came from, but what is 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.600 the actual idea of the hyper loop and how is 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.240 it's a post to work, and why is it even 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.640 something worth talking about? Well, back in August, that's when 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.920 the world at large learned about the hyper loop concept. 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.200 It's when Elon Musk published a white paper that was 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.840 about fifty eight pages long. And Elon Musk, in case 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:22.360 you aren't aware, is the entrepreneur behind such companies as SpaceX, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:27.479 the private space company, and Tesla, the electric vehicle company. 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.200 This white paper was all about a high tech transportation 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:35.520 system is kind of a train, kind of like a subway, 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.599 kind of like well, Elon must described it as a 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.400 cross between a hockey table, like an air hockey table, 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.240 and a rail gun, which is a pretty exciting way 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.880 to think about getting from point A to point B. Now, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.159 the motivating factor for all of this seems to be 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.560 that the state of California had approved a high speed 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:57.679 rail project and Elon Musk it got his dander up. 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.880 If you were to look at Elon Musk's dander that day, 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.000 it would have been in the up position. Now, that's 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:08.039 because in that white paper, Musk laid out all of 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:12.040 his frustrations with this high speed rail project, and they 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.800 really boiled down to two major ones with a lot 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.400 of subsidiary ones. The two major ones was that would 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.960 be that uh, that one. It was incredibly expensive, just 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:26.920 really a multibillion dollar project, so it was in his mind, 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:32.359 financially wasteful. Secondly, he argued that out of all the 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:36.400 high speed rail systems that were in operation or proposed, 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:40.760 it was one of the slowest. So he said, on 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.640 a per mile basis, it's one of the most expensive. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.200 On a speed basis, it's one of the slowest, So 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:49.320 why would you want to spend a lot of money 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.640 to not get anywhere fast? He thought that that was 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.520 an incredible waste of time and money, and that it 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:02.120 wasn't going to solve the issue you of of of 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.760 speeding up travel between major cities, specifically Los Angeles and 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.680 San Francisco, which are quite far apart. If you're not 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.160 familiar with California geography, you might think, oh, well, those 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.080 are two cities in the same state, but they are 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.200 hundreds of miles apart from one another. It takes more 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.000 than five hours of driving to get between the two. 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.360 So a high speed rail system would be nice if 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.719 in fact it were high speed. But must argued that 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.800 the the one that was proposed was not nearly fast 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:35.320 enough to be any more advantageous than just taking a 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.200 flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and that there 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.920 had to be a better way. And so he said 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:45.760 there needed to be a less expensive, safer, faster method 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.320 of getting from San Francisco to Los Angeles or vice versa, 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:55.839 and that he had the better idea. Now must acknowledge 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.839 that for cities that are really far apart from each other, 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.800 think about a thousand and miles or kilometers or more, 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.359 supersonic air travel is likely the best option, assuming we 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:12.240 can solve a few major issues with supersonic travel. One 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.560 of those is getting the right airplane geometry to minimize 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:20.120 sonic booms so that air travel doesn't become massively disruptive 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.960 for the population on the ground. A sonic boom, by 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:27.120 the way, is when you have uh some mass traveling 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.800 faster than the speed of sound through whatever medium you 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.880 are traveling through. So, in the case of air, depending 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.240 upon air pressure and temperature and that sort of thing, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.720 if you're traveling faster than the speed of sound, you're 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.560 building up this pressure wave that ends up collapsing in 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:48.440 on itself after the object passes through that area, and 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:53.080 that collapse creates this sonic boom. The sonic boom travels 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.160 with the object as it moves through. So if you 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.800 have a supersonic jet traveling overhead, that boom you hear 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:03.840 is it passes over. It's not just a single boom. 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:08.000 That boom is actually traveling with the supersonic aircraft as 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.600 long as it is traveling at those incredible speeds. So 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.520 there are companies that are working on building out better 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.440 plane models that can travel at these supersonic speeds while 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:23.040 minimizing that sonic boom, and they're making some amazing progress. Uh. 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.640 These are include private companies as well as NASA working 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:31.000 on these designs. So, assuming we get that problem solved, 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.760 Musk says, it's probably going to be the case that 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.840 the most efficient way to travel the most uh the 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.719 cheapest way. Really, it's everything from the amount of time 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.080 you're spending to the amount of money you spend will 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:49.160 probably be supersonic travel. But for cities that are closer 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.000 together than that but still a good distance away, let's 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:57.520 say like nine hundred miles around kilometers apart from each other, 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.920 you would want a different solution because with a supersonic jet, 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.000 you would reach cruising altitude, and you would only then 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.680 be able to accelerate to supersonic speeds, but you would 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:11.640 only be doing that for a very short while before 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.720 you had to descend. You would be essentially be up 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.280 and down so fast that you can't really take advantage 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.640 of the supersonic travel part. So it doesn't make sense 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.800 to take a supersonic flight between two cities that are 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.680 nine miles are closer together. What you could do is 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.679 build this hyper loop system in order to travel at 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.080 incredible speeds between those points. And that's where the sweet 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.200 spot is between two cities that are nine miles apart 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.640 or less, and that they have to be two cities 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:45.800 where you would typically have a lot of heavy travel 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.040 between the two. There's gotta be a lot of traffic. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.680 So assuming you have that situation, that's where hyper loop, 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.800 he argues, would make a lot of sense. Again, his 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.360 example being Los Angeles and San Francisco, but any major 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.640 metropolitan areas where there's a lot of travel between the 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:08.000 cities that are at this distance from one another would 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:13.320 be candidates for this kind of transportation system. Uh. He 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:19.840 would want this train sort of hybrid system to travel 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.800 at incredible speeds not quite supersonic. We'll get into that. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.240 This is a system that that consists of an enclosed 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:32.040 tube or tunnel, and the air pressure inside that tube 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.360 would be low. It would still be present, but it 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.320 would be low. So you would have these giant pumps 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.480 along the tube that would pump out a lot of 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.920 the air. So you have a very low pressure system 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.840 inside the tube that lowers the air resistance considerably, but 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.600 does not create an actual vacuum, so there's still air 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.560 inside the tube. Must acknowledges that the vacuum approach, though 0:10:56.040 --> 0:11:00.679 very effective, it removes air resistance, UH, would be incredibly 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.760 difficult to achieve from an engineering perspective, because even the 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.520 smallest imperfection in the tube would allow air to leak in. 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.000 You know, if you have an extremely low pressure system 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.120 and you've got greater pressure on the outside, obviously any leak, 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.679 any crack is going to allow air to rush in. 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.360 So he says going with a low pressure system would 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.800 make more sense than a vacuum. Uh, it's too difficult 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.680 to maintain a vacuum within a room, much less a 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:33.960 five hundred mile long loop of tube. In his words, 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.000 so rather than using something like a mag lev system 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.880 magnetic levitation system in which the train would levitate above 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:46.360 the tunnel floor using electromagnetic repulsion. Musk was proposing using 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.320 air bearings instead, so this would not be a system 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.640 where you use magnets in order to repel one another 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.720 and that would make the capsule float off the floor 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.000 of the tube. Instead, it would be like an air 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.000 hockey table. So if you're not familiar with these, uh, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.640 an air hockey table is a table that's got a 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.840 surface with tiny pin prick holes in it, and a 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.880 fan under the surface of the table blows air up 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.280 through those holes. You put a little plastic hockey puck 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:17.600 on top of the table. The air coming up from 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.440 the bottom ends up making the hockey puck glide across 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.199 the table. So that's kind of the principle he had 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.319 for the the hyper loop concept, except instead of having 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:35.360 the tube generating this air and blowing against the capsule, 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.200 he thought of the capsule having essentially these pin pricks 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.080 at the bottom of the capsule blowing air down, so 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.640 that would be where the capsule would generate some lift. 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.240 It would also generate left through its forward momentum, and 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.440 at the front of this capsule. He wants. He proposed 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.400 putting a pump a fan essentially, because there's still air 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.760 inside the tube. If you didn't have a of moving 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.320 that air around the capsule, you would run into an 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.960 issue where you're compressing the air ahead of you. As 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.600 the capsule moves down the tube, it's pushing a column 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.360 of air, and if the air cannot get around the 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.040 capsule fast enough, you start compressing it and that ends 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.640 up being like an air braking system. It will actually 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:22.360 slow down and ultimately stop the capsule pushing against it 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.360 in the other direction. So he proposed putting a fan 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.600 in the front of the capsule to pull air in 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.120 partly to allow the capsule to continue moving down the 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:36.160 tube at speed, but also feeding into an air compressor 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.360 that then would power these air bearings and allow the 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.720 capsule to maintain lift on the bottom of the over 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.880 the top of the tube flooring. And because you're not 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:51.840 using wheels, you're not losing a lot of energy to friction. Right. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:53.679 You've got a little bit of air resistance that you're 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:58.760 dealing with, but you're not dealing with wheels running against 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:03.239 a surface, so that loss of energy to friction is minimized. 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.240 It's still there. You still have some air resistance, you 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:10.040 still have some other elements of friction, but it's greatly reduced. 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.800 So Uh, this approach, he said, was going to be 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:21.240 an effective engineering solution to the problem. Um, now, what 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.880 about propulsion. The air bearings provide lift, but how does 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.800 the capsule actually move forward? This is where Elon Musk 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:37.240 was suggesting the external linear electric motor version of of propulsion. So, 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.720 if you know how an electric motor works, let's use 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.920 a very simple version. You've got, let's say, a permanent magnet, 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:49.360 and you've got some uh, you've got some electromagnet, you know, 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.800 conductive wire, insulated conductive wire. Uh. We're talking more of 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.480 a dynamo than a motor here. And you move the 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.720 permanent magnet so that it's north and south poles or 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:06.120 road tating and going. The coil of inductive wire is 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.320 then being exposed to a fluctuating magnetic field that's going 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.360 to induce current to flow through the wire. Uh. That also, 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:15.440 by the way, generates its own electric field, because you 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:20.960 have electricity voltage essentially applied to this, uh, this conductive wire. 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.120 He's thinking about the same sort of thing, but in 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.880 a linear pathway. So you've got this, uh, this electro 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:31.840 magnetic force that is pulling and pushing the capsule. You 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:36.560 have opposite poles magnetic poles attracting one another that's pulling 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.600 the capsule forward. Then you have like poles pushing against 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:42.960 each other that continues to push the capsule forward. This 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.720 allows you to accelerate the capsule like a railgun. You're 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.440 using the electromagnetic force to accelerate it in a linear motion, 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.040 so it's going straight. The air bearings are what allow 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.600 it to have the lift. The electric motor allows it 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.560 to have the forward momentum. And this was kind of 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:06.400 his general idea for the infrastructure. As for the capsules themselves, 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.720 his version of it would seat twenty eight passengers per 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.240 passenger capsule. He had a couple of different models of capsule. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.600 He also proposed a version that would have a slightly 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.680 larger capsules. These would hold up to three full sized 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.880 automobiles and you could have passengers inside the automobile, so 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.600 you could be sitting in a car inside a capsule, 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.120 and that way you would start in your car in 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.560 l a and then thirty five minutes later you'd drive 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.920 out of the capsule. In San Francisco, which would save 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.800 you a ton of time from the normal five hours 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:43.640 plus of driving. UH. The maximum width for a passenger 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.080 only capsule would be four point four three feet or 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.480 one point three five ms, so not very wide, with 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:52.880 a height of six point one one feet or one 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.000 point one zero meters, so again not very tall. If 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.200 you're a tall person, you'd be stooping a bit in 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.000 order to move around this cabin. UH doors would either 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.119 be of a goal wing design, meaning like the DeLorean, 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.800 they lift up, or they would be slides so that 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.440 it would allow for easy UH loading and unloading of 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.840 the vehicle. Luggage would go on one of the two 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.000 ends of the vehicle, depending upon where you would put 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:19.720 the rest of the components, so either in the very 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.399 front or the very back, and the weight of the 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:27.520 passenger capsule without the interior components just the weight of 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.560 all the external parts would be about six thousand, eight 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:34.560 hundred pounds or three thousand one ms. And Musk estimated 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.800 the cost for each capsule's exterior to be about two 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.840 hundred forty five thousand dollars apiece. Now, all the stuff 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:47.119 on the inside, like the seats, the door panels, the restraints, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:52.320 the various displays would weigh another five thousand, five hundred 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.119 pounds or two thousand, five hundred ms, and it would 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.600 cost another two hundred fifty five thousand dollars. Then they're 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:01.600 all the other elements to add to the costs, such 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.560 as the propulsion system components that would be in each capsule, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.679 the air compressor blades, the air bearings, all of this stuff. 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.680 All of that told, Musk estimated that a passenger only 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:16.200 capsule would cost one million, three hundred fifty thousand dollars 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:20.679 apiece and have a weight total of fifteen thousand kilograms, 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:22.480 And he goes on to estimate that you need about 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.840 fifty four million dollars to make enough capsules for the 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.000 hyper loop system he was proposing between Los Angeles and 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.919 San Francisco. Now that's enough capsules where you would have 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:35.879 them at either end so that you could have a 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:41.520 consistent uh service between the two cities on any given day. 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.000 So fifty four million dollars for just the capsules, that's 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.600 not too bad. However, that doesn't include the cost of 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.560 the infrastructure. Will get to that if you were traveling 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.720 on that route, how safe would it be? Well, elon Musk, 0:18:55.760 --> 0:19:00.080 again arguing for the system he was proposing, said that 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.560 there'd be a lot of redundant safety features, including maintaining 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.720 a healthy distance between capsules. So between you and the 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.720 next closest capsule would be a gap of twenty three 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.760 miles or thirty seven kilometers on average, which is a 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.680 lot of safety space to prevent collisions between capsules. Still, 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:21.880 tons of other safety issues that you would have to 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:27.879 take into account and make sure we're uh prepared for 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.119 so that way you don't have any massive issues. Now, 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.840 according to Musk, the hyper loop would allow for eight 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:39.200 hundred forty passengers to travel per hour between Los Angeles 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.160 and San Francisco. Now that number could be increased by 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.440 decreasing the amount of departure time between capsules. He was 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:51.199 envisioning capsules arriving at a station, unloading, loading up, and 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:53.960 every two minutes you would have a capsule leave either 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:56.840 l A or San Francisco. Now that that doesn't mean 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.280 that a capsule only spends two minutes per station. You 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.280 would have one station or one capsule arriving at a 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:08.360 station while another capsule, maybe three capsules ahead, is leaving, 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.320 So you would still have several minutes to unload and 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:15.000 load each individual capsule before it blasts off and heads 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:20.160 over to its destination. Uh, these capsules would be going 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.879 pretty darn fast. Musk talks about them hitting speeds of 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.960 seven hundred sixty miles per hour or one thousand, two 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.400 hundred twenty kilometers per hour, which is also known as 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:33.040 mock point nine one at sixty eight degrees fahrenheit or 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.680 twenty degrees celsius. So you're talking about going nearly as 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.440 fast as the speed of sound, but not actually breaking 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.800 the sound barrier at that speed at those temperatures. And 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.440 again that offers me the opportunity to remind you guys, 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.119 sound travels through the air at a speed that depends 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.560 on other things like air temperature, So you have to 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:53.200 take that into account when you talk about the speed 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.920 of sound. It's not a constant through all altitudes and temperatures. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.880 You have to have these other variables in account before 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:02.600 you can actually talk about the speed of sound, although 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.520 we can usually just assume we're talking about a standard 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.359 temperature when we're usually using that term. Back to the show, 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.560 at that speed, you would be able to make the 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.679 trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco in about thirty 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.640 five minutes, and the high speed rail system would take 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.480 two hours and thirty eight minutes on that same trip. 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.840 So the system that Elon Musk was saying was inefficient, slow, 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:29.919 and expensive would take two hours thirty eight minutes. Driving 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.800 takes five hours. A plane trip would take a little 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.280 bit more than an hour, like an hour and fifteen minutes. 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.680 So the hyper loop would theoretically be the fastest way 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.840 to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco, assuming it 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.600 works the way Elon Musk imagines. So thirty five minutes 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:50.080 is a huge amount of time saved going from point 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.760 A to point b. Uh, it would be the fastest 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.000 solution by far. You might wonder what it would be 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:59.440 like to actually travel inside one of those capsules. According 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:04.880 to Muss, he imagines that the entire interior would have displays, 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:09.120 kind of like television displays or computer displays that would 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:13.840 show a landscape, maybe a model of the landscape that 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.359 you're actually passing through, or maybe it would be something 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.600 else like our space or under the water or some 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:22.480 other city if you wanted to, Or maybe it would 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.320 just be television, because there's no point in having windows 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:27.600 your inside and enclosed tube. All you would see is 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.200 the interior of a tube whizzing by at seven miles 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:34.600 per hour. Using the displays would help you get some 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:39.119 other sensory input. Uh. There's other interesting questions like would 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:44.080 this affect your sense of of your your perception of space? 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:48.399 Like would you feel an emotion sickness due to this 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:51.800 kind of thing? Uh, that's a question that I don't 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:53.520 know the answer to you, because as far as I know, 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:57.200 no one's actually tried it. But it is really interesting. 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:00.000 Now We've got a lot more to talk about, uh, 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.720 and I'm going to dive into some more details about 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:05.879 what travel aboard the hyper loop would theoretically be like, 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:07.600 as well as talk about some of the companies that 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:09.760 are trying to bring it to life. But before I 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:19.119 do that, let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Now, 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.000 I just mentioned about being inside those capsules and looking 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:25.800 at those displays, and you know, seeing some gorgeous stuff, 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.679 and and that sounds really nice. You would have restraints 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:32.320 on your your seats because you're talking about accelerating too 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:36.359 pretty incredible speeds and then eventually decelerating. Now, the ideas 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:39.199 that you would do this gradually, so you wouldn't be 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.160 experiencing any very powerful G forces. That would also mean 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:44.600 that the tube itself would not be able to have 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:47.639 any sharp turns on it, because the amount of G 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:51.320 force you would experience as a passenger would be too great. 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:57.520 You would be very much uncomfortable, if not blacking out 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:00.560 due to those G forces being placed on your if 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:03.439 you were making sharp turns. So you'd have to have 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:08.080 very gradual curves to your hyper loop track, and you 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:13.119 would have to again have this long acceleration and deceleration 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:17.440 so that you're not placing too much stress on your passengers. 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:19.679 But let's go back to price for a minute. So 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:21.760 I talked about the capsules and that they would cost 0:24:21.760 --> 0:24:24.399 a cool fifty four million dollars each, But what about 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:27.600