this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2022
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Which of musk's ideas were going to be big but flopped? I can't think of any.
With Elon, it's easy to give examples, because he could brush his teeth and will claim it's going to revolutionize everything.
The hyperloop proposed 10 years ago was supposed to revolutionize transportation and get you between SF and LA in an hour. It's totally dead in the water now.
Are you sure it's totally dead in the water?
The top speed recorded is 288 mph and hasn't been beaten in 3 years. This isn't even faster than the fastest train at 374 mph which doesn't need vacuum tubes. Considering that hyperloop is just a fast train in a vacuum to make it go even faster, you'd expect it to at least beat trains after 10 years of work. So you tell me.
I think it's supposed to be more efficient, not just fast. I worked with a guy who helped design Maglev trains for China. With my limited knowledge, I'd think that a train floating above a track with no friction and being propelled by a magnetic wave has more potential that a train in a tube. I'm not familiar with the power and technology it takes to create that magnetic wave, but I still think it has more potential. I should have asked how the wave was created, but I was too amazed that the technology even existed.
Idk, I think any argument that hyperloop is more energy efficient goes out the window when you consider the energy costs of having to keep depressurized a 500 mile long tube.
The hyperloop is odd actually. Musk didn't actually want to do it, he just tweeted out some random thing as a reaction to the price of California's high speed rail proposal, but at that point his fanbase was used to him just doing crazy things so they piled on him. That's why he set up that competition, to see if it was viable.
Source: his biography
Besides, that it doesn't matter if musk just claims something, anyone can claim something. Anything he's gotten behind has succeeded.
Like Twitter.
Musk didn't own twitter when I made that comment. Twitter has revealed how bad he's gotten. I don't think my comment applies anymore.
He didn't just passively tweet about it, he wrote a white paper, built a test track costing no less than $37 million, sponsored competitions from 2015-2019 for who could build the best pod, went on television interviews explaining his idea and claimed it was easy. And he has recently promised building a new test track after all of his fans moved on to doge coin and stopped caring about hyperloop. He's never claimed his fans pushed him to do this. To say "he never wanted to do it " is a dishonest and contradictory analysis.
Also, you are just moving the goalposts now. You asked me which Elon Musk idea was supposed to be big but flopped. Now you say it doesn't matter what he claimed is supposed to happen, he has to back it. Excuse me, is that what anyone believes the word "idea" means? In order for something to be an idea do you have to invest in it? And apparently investing $37 million is not enough for something to be considered an idea. You are making a fool of yourself.
Ok, ok maybe it's not fair to say he never wanted to do it, so it's a good thing I didn't. Look there's no need to get worked up. He did say his fans pushed him to do it, in his biography. You can go read it if you want, it's probably available at a nearby library. The competition was sponsored by SpaceX and the white paper based on a previously existing concept and written mostly by other engineers. Musk just took all the credit.
I'm not trying to move the goalposts here. I'm just referring to the original question, in response to your example of musk claiming toothbrushing is revolutionary. Which I know is exaggerated obviously, but my point is that musk claiming something does not make it the next big thing. Musk may claim lots of things but the ideas he actually believes in enough to personally work on have succeeded.*
*At least so far. Personally I think the boring company thing is going to be a total flop, but it's too early to say for sure.
Yet you say "Musk didn’t actually want to do it" in the message I replied to.