Well There's Your Problem | Episode 150: The Death of Hyperloop

wow the pipe dream turned out to be just that, incredible
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[@mayday3177]

Why do you guys hate Elon so much? In the engineering world who is doing more to push us forward? You can hate his politics but hammering him for an imperfect gen 1 product that’s trying to replace the most popular vehicle in the U.S. just feels sad

[@hazavair5755]

He's a blood emerald trust fund baby who didn't even get a degree. Everything you think he's done was in fact invented by someone else, and then he came in and took credit. Come on bro

[@GarethDennisTV]

oh dude - Elon is doing nothing good in the engineering world at all, pay attention!

[@th3oryO]

😂😂😂

[@ballisticwaffles]

Congratulations on the pin, perhaps take this time to reflect maybe perhaps his blind accelerationism is only in service to his massive ego. And of course goes nowhere, is useless, and is harmful to actual technologies that could benefit us now instead of it 50 to 60 years.

[@taxirob2248]

The most popular vehicle in the US is the Ford F150... which is available in a full electric version. There is nothing to replace.

[@Paddleposter62]

I'm a corrosion engineer (yes we exist) with close on 40 years experience and all of us saw this Cybertruck stainless steel corrosion issue coming since it was first announced. Road salt will be it's death and for me it will be the comedy gift that will keep on giving.

[@katarjin]

How did you end up doing that? Not a job I thought of before.

[@gameworkerty]

It's just a regular engineer who specs into poison damage ​@@katarjin

[@Paddleposter62]

@@katarjin There are actually degree courses...and you are about the billionth person to ask me that. Massively enjoyable work. Mostly I go to site and the first words out of my mouth are "What the f#*k" and "Who the f#*k".

[@Jonnyg325]

If straight stainless steel was as weather resistant as Elon seems to think it is, there would be no money in galvanizing. Instead Hot dipped galvanizing is worth several billion dollars per year

[@embasorangiratina36]

​@@Jonnyg325 That implies Elon knows what galvanizing is.

[@theodricaethelfrith]

❌ Bad time management ✅ Precision-Scheduled Podcasting

[@SilverGear_]

This made me laugh too much

[@russianbear0027]

Just in time podcasting

[@zyavoosvawleilte1308]

Listeners hate this one trick! Learn how this podcaster managed to post three days early by not folowing a schedule CLICK HERE

[@devnom9143]

PSR it's neither precise, nor scheduled, nor a railroad, it's just trucks on tracks

[@theryanbard]

I think at this point Gareth should be officially added as the 6th host of the podcast along with Devon and the activate windows notification

[@IcarusTyler]

I think the best arrangement is Activate Windows at #4, with Devon and Gareth ranked #5 and #6

[@gbrading]

@@IcarusTyler Agreed, it's only fair. Afterall Activate Windows logo has been in the most episodes.

[@kazen5907]

​yea, its important that the more junior hosts know their place.

[@erinfournumbers]

Activate Gareth

[@GoredonTheDestroyer]

​@@erinfournumbers Activate Gareth, Editor Windows and Devon Logo.

[@shine111]

Honestly I'm just happy the hyperloop episode turned out to be "the death of" instead of "the tunnel fire of"

[@shine111]

Also I'm happy to bestow unto wtyp the coveted "thing I was listening when I finally finished my damn sewing project" award. I am now the proud owner of a very nice and warm dressing gown which is only slightly an engineering disaster

[@The5lacker]

Ah, but it's a vacuum tube so it'd be very hard to make it into a tunnel fire. I believe in Musk, though. If any man can cause a fire inside of a vacuum, it'd be Captain Batteries.

[@JuneNafziger]

@@The5lackerbut also the kind of incident that could start a tunnel fire is the type of incident that can cause loss of vacuum

[@christopherclukey8849]

Word.

[@viliamklein]

Im a space engineer. We test things in vacuum chambers all the time. The chambers are temperamental machines and the big ones require dedicated support staff. By big, I mean something you could put a desk inside. How did the idea of hundreds or thousands of miles of vacuum tube ever leave the napkin? Goddard's excuse is that he wouldn't have had experience with vacuum chambers.

[@deatheragefarms]

Here's how it left the napkin: it was never supposed to work. It was always only there to distract from and scuttle high speed rail.

[@zeitgeistx5239]

Not to mention the most capable vacuum chamber in the world is the 2- 1km long tubes of LIGO and it takes them nearly a month to pump everything out. Thus ruling out a mass transportation system built around vacuum tubes.

[@libsock9367]

How about a slight overpressure of hydrogen? You'd get like 1/16th the drag of air, and wouldn't have to worry about maintaining a vacuum. If it leaks, that's an outside problem, not an inside problem.

[@willowarkan2263]

@@libsock9367 not sure, but how flammable would that be?

[@m0redread]

a bomb 1000 miles long. nice. @@libsock9367

[@Grumskiz]

Personally, I think the appearance of the Cybertruck is vastly improved when it is heavily corroded. Really gives it that dystopian future vibe.

[@MrJohndoakes]

"Mad Max" for technodorks.

[@fawndoe1917]

Elon truly is a genius, only he can have the foresight to design ruin value into his cars

[@Saucisse_Praxis]

It got the same Dolerean vibes but with less polygons. Does also Elon advises to wash the metal with gasoline tho ?

[@sneakythumbs9900]

The truck looks like shit. But I actually think you are right here. Maybe I have spent to long working in stainless fabrication, but I like the patina it gets. In the case of the cybertruck, the discolouration will be in outline of every bird shit, fingerprint, and wet leaf that has landed on it. But still, I think it will look better.

[@90sStarterJacket]

Like one of those ISIS death trucks with the panels welded on

[@derpallardie]

As a soil scientist, I'm gonna claim full credit for killing the Hyperloop via Sandy Loam

[@DWOBoyleMusic]

All the freaks out there love the work of Sandy Loam. She's great!

[@piccalillipit9211]

My sister is NOT a soil scientist - she is a pig nutritionist - but she was forced to work as a soil scientist for a couple of years. Standing in the middle of barren fields in the ice and snow in February... She liked the science of it, but hated the job.

[@squelchedotter]

I love the dirt scientists

[@melmelhodgepodge3800]

Sandy Loam, who is she? And why can't I reach her?

[@raultrashlord4404]

Sandy strikes again

[@zyavoosvawleilte1308]

Imagine dying in a civil war and the thing that kills you is a cybertruck technical

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Oof. That'd be a bad time.

[@loadeddice4696]

That sounds like the fate of the guy driving the cybertruck technical

[@joshuahadams]

End up ran over by the world’s most bootleg Warthog.

[@90sStarterJacket]

You didnt pay for the fire extinguisher or air bag DLCs.

[@gonzoengineering4894]

I would die consoled by the fact that the recoil probably destroyed the frame

[@dan10008]

"OUIABEAUX" is an underrated joke by Devon

[@lexp6099]

giggled way too long at that one

[@user-nf6wu1kc7n]

Beaux would sound more like the o in bow. Ouiâbou would be closer, though I'm not sure if the circonflexe over the a is necessary

[@lukisprieston477]

Took some real psychic damage from that one

[@jasonbates9906]

"A weeb for France, spelled OUIB." 😂

[@RoS_98]

hyperpoop

[@BarackLesnar]

hyperpop

[@permafrostyx]

Hyperdupe

[@Saucisse_Praxis]

That's why you dont eat lots of (optical) fiber...

[@-r-495]

messing with the stocks of some companies just like that? 63 slides and nearly three hours of ad-free content that may or may not mess with your stonks

[@-r-495]

is it measured by analysing the sentiment and keywords emitted by the commentariat?

[@ribsi85]

A billionaire's only interest is the endless plunder of public funds. Get into subsidized industries, purchase public infrastructure, take all the profit and socialize anything that goes wrong. Aggressively lobby for additional subsidies.

[@snigwithasword1284]

Yes. Welfare only for corporations and highways in this cursed country.

[@arandomlostsoul753]

Devon continuing to sneak in visual gags for the hogs to enjoy is *chef's kiss*

[@XaurianQueen]

They're a treasure we don't deserve

[@brianwithoutay2291]

yes and I just wish he would leave them up a few seconds longer so I don't have to pause and rewind to catch them! I watch WTYP on a second monitor while working on other things and Devon always catches me off guard!

[@AbsolXGuardian]

1:26:27 UK: But how are your trains safe in a crash if they're so light weight? Japan: That's easy, simply don't crash

[@ellarevmira]

if i was about to crash i would simply 𝗻𝗼𝘁 crash

[@DavidNightjet]

Dude I was so happy that they kicked the bucket that I was the one who changed the Wikipedia article to past tense lmao

[@theprojectproject01]

Fucking L E G E N D

[@OrinLinwe]

I looked up the definition of high-speed train (and the proliferation of them), and found this adorable sentence about Sweden's high speed train: "..launched in 1990 as a first-class only train with a meal included in the ticket price, and free use of the train's fax machine."

[@limejet]

we still use the same trains! they did add wifi though.

[@BarackLesnar]

Fax machines built in to every seat on the Amtrak, and 1 touch button to fax your butt crack to elon musk

[@Critical_Hit]

I love the X2000

[@rodakscreens]

Roz pronouncing Shinkansen the same way Harold Ramis would pronounce Wisconsin is tremendous

[@holo_val]

"The first time I got mad about this was when I saw the white paprr." THANK YOU!!! I am just a lowly aerospace graduate but almost a decade ago when I first read about the hyperloop I thought it was just a dumb as shit and I had so many people argue with me that it was going to be real. 😤😤😤

[@jbutler8585]

Don't know if it was mentioned and I missed it, but my biggest point of mockery has always been - WHY vacuum tho? ... *because it sounds cooler*. No other reason. Viable existing trains don't bother with it, gee why not? Is it because the energy savings are completely dwarfed by the increased cost of construction? There could be a sweet spot where reduced air pressure vs cost of depressurizing the tunnel for every stop makes it cost less to run. But how many centuries does it need to operate before it recoups the cost of fancy hydraulics and tunnel plus all that added maintenance. The atmospheric railway is a better engineered hyperloop even though it's 160 years old. Because at least that existed in the space of reality.

[@vylbird8014]

People love the idea of the genius inventor who defies experts. It makes a great story. But seldom a true one.

[@Davvg]

as a ‘lowly aerospace graduate’ you have more expertise than musk

[@alexroselle]

the cautionary text from the Cybertruck manual reads like the classic SNL skit for "Happy Fun Ball" "Do NOT taunt Cybertruck"

[@nicktorrid]

I knew it reminded me of something specific...

[@darthbob88]

I do love just how duckbilled those Shinkansen get. Damn thing's got 20 feet of driver's cab and 30 more feet of snoot.

[@jgraaay18]

And what a glorious snoot it is!

[@icarus313]

I keep imagining the Shinkansen train floating in shallow water, occasionally opening up its bill to eat some pond scum, and shaking its rear car back and forth

[@nicktorrid]

​@icarus313 occasionally it'll nibble on a flatcar

[@aidanwarren4980]

“The snoot droops” *cue Shinkansen with a drooped snoot flipping end-over-end at hypersonic speeds because the snoot hit the ground and it torqued the whole cab over*

[@russetwolf13]

Trains as Dragons.

[@DerplingKing]

Doesn't the Atmospheric Railway episode end with shitting on the hyperloop? Surely that counts as enough for an "I told you so"

[@machonacho95]

Yep. There's also an even early video by Justin from 2019 shitting on the hyperloop: kzbin.info/www/bejne/apXRZ42Mpa9_rtU

[@wattthefaqameye1146]

Why are you complaining right now

[@Joebaseball-qp2nk]

@@wattthefaqameye1146no they are responding to what the crew said at the beginning where they talked about how they couldnt say “i told you so” because they didnt so an episode on the loop before it flopped.

[@maxwellkazemba2299]

I for one am proud of WTYP for going above and beyond in their I told you so duties

[@iemgus]

I just listened to that episode and it does end in a very clear statement that the hyper loop will never work.

[@thrashdog9485]

I was briefly involved in an effort to design a pod to the spec of Musk's original whitepaper, with my area of responsibility being the interior design of the pod. It quickly became apparent that Elon was pulling figures out of his rear end when I laid out the cross-sectional area of the "passenger" pod per his specs and determined that the passengers in the pod would have to be seated in tandem, in a posture roughly equivalent to a formula race car, in order to fit inside -- even before you counted any cross-sectional area that needed to be devoted to ducting and various mech+elec systems. The top of the car would have to hinge open to allow people to climb in and out, creating a huge vacuum seal with terrible geometry around its perimeter, and be horribly claustrophobic in transit. If I recall, Elon of course assumed two-abreast seating with a central aisle... somehow.

[@fofalooza]

That seating description reminds me of the video for what I believe was a tradeshow demo of double decker airplane seating. Just fire me out of a cannon or put me in with the cargo. I am not taking a flight with another passenger's asshole in my face.

[@brianwithoutay2291]

I remember hearing about UCLA's school of Architecture / Environmental Design having a special curriculum called 'Hyperloop Studio' focused on design of stations and pod interiors. Architect Craig Hodgetts who was leading the courses was totally hellbent that the Hyperloop was absolutely going to happen and no serious technical obstacles stood in its way. Just another example that architects don't always know what they are talking about!

[@jrobson100]

I mean the only way you're going to get a 30 second turnaround time is to not have seats, load from above and just fling passengers into a heap in the compartment, slam the lid and fire it off, so yeah.

[@Dong_Harvey]

reminds me of a certain submersible

[@a.gravemistake3061]

The real hyperloop is how fast Elon returns to his divorce lawyer

[@TVs_Brent]

The death of hyperloop beats death in a hyperloop.

[@theatheistpaladin]

Which is beaten by death by taking a hyperpoop.

[@brianwithoutay2291]

yes death in a hyperloop would most definitely look like WTYP's own brand of "chunky marinara".

[@ballisticwaffles]

@@theatheistpaladin Or death via a Hyperscoop.

[@lorcan8407]

Megabus checklist: - intense smell of piss for several hours - volcanic temperatures - bottle rolling around in aisle - someone playing terrible music on their phone loud speaker - toilet is eldritch abomination

[@skinny878]

Our greatest contribution to world culture, bar none

[@Jinrokh]

Sample size of one here, but the time i rode the megabus it was the middle of summer and it was glacially cold inside, which was lovely for me who had only packed shorts and t-shirts.

[@ckorp666]

one time in a waiting room, someone was blaring those cement scraping ASMR tiktoks on their phone speaker. made me wish they were playing top 40 rap pop instead

[@kwarra-an]

​@@ckorp666there are people who LIKE that sound? Jesus christ. Up next: nails-on-chalkboard ASMR

[@JohnCushion]

Regarding the cybertruck rusting, stainless steel can and will rust prodigiously when contaminated with normal steel, say if somebody grinds steel nearby. Or if it gets scratched deep enough. Or if you use pure water. Or if it gets salt water on it. Or if you put too much acid on it. Or… I’m almost willing to bet that they neglected to passivate the panels, which is an acid bath to remove the surface iron from the alloy and leave only chrome as the outer, more corrosion resistant surface.

[@weatheranddarkness]

Would be interested to see what the finish looks like on this alloy after passivation. I bet they didn't because they (he? Alon seems to be a bit maniacal with his control over random shit) were trying to avoid making it look any different from the concept made on a press brake.

[@JohnCushion]

@@weatheranddarknesshonestly, you can tell me that they came up with the alloy themselves, and I still expect it to be just 304, but exceptionally low quality because Elon doesn’t believe in nickel.

[@ChilledGuitarReviews]

Anyone who has seen a stainless steel exhaust after being under a car for 5 Years knew this was coming 😂

[@drakkenmensch]

"I become a weeb for France, but it's OUIB." As a native speaker of french, that had me giggling.

[@deyahatesyou]

hearing alice talk about being clicker trained and having a normal and well adjusted reaction edit: the second i heard "pet journalist" i knew what was coming

[@toy1947]

"youre gonna drive this onto like the grass parking lot at the Maryland renaissance faire, and by the time youre back, your car WILL BE in pieces, like the blues brothers car" 1) yayyyy MD ren faire reference! 2) this is reminding me of my fond memory of leaving the Maryland ren faire at the end of the day, and they fired the cannon they do at the end, which was apparently percussive enough to set off the alarm on a tesla parked near the entrance. good times, very funny

[@katarjin]

I still need to go one year, keep forgetting or work moves a trip or two during it.

[@toy1947]

I definitely reccomend it, i love it. I need to check out the PA faire at some point, I've heard good things about that one as well.

[@thomasgiles2876]

Yes they said they're under a time pressure, and its a 3hr episode. But at the 90 minute mark they just, in unison, say "ENJOY THE SILENCE" and it just goes dead.

[@GarethDennisTV]

we are professionals

[@paleposter]

Good song

[@Kameth]

Wait. Wasn't one of the Cybertruck's supposed selling points that it was a car for survivalists? That's why they shot a bunch of arrows at it and chucked a ball through its windows. It's hardly a survivalist vehicle if it immediately corrodes in the rain.

[@deatheragefarms]

"Car for survivalists" makes no sense anyway. There's too much infrastructure required to keep them running. A mountain bike with a trailer is a real survivalist vehicle.

[@tarasaurus98]

It's a vehicle for survivalists in the sense that it's designed to separate survivalists from their money.

[@ps238principal]

Looking at most survivalists, they tend to fall apart in the rain, too.

[@josejaimes-ramos1546]

When he said 'survivalist' he probably meant scared conservatives afraid of cities because of Fox News and OAN.

[@molliemicrobe]

This brings up a core problem with survivalists in general. You could never rig an improvised power generator capable of charging a cybertruck, and even if you could, you could never keep the truck running because it's all computer based and one small sensor fault can turn it into a big, ugly paperweight. Even with something more "practical" in an apocalyptic survival setting like a pre-emissions equipment diesel truck, you still have to fill half your bed with tools to keep it running in the long term, and good luck keeping it fueled once the diesel starts spoiling after a few years. For most, survivalism is more about unhealthy anxiety coping methods than actual practical ways of surviving long term. A bunker full of cans and a guns aren't going to get you very far if you don't have practical knowledge that can help you long term. Knowing how to grow food, forage, and build shelter will help you a hell of a lot more than having a big-ass truck that becomes a burden you'll have to leave behind.

[@GavinGWhiz]

Fun fact: there's the Virgin Hyperloop pod in the museum of Transportation just outside St. Louis and it's clear all the materials describing it were written by someone with a financial stake in making it not seem like a bad, failed idea.

[@Sogge93]

> company in Germany gets mentioned > (as a Bavarian) "Oh boy, surely they based their scam in Bavaria" > cue picture with Markus Söder > "God fucking damn it."

[@halphantom2274]

Maggus ist immerhin über die Landesgrenzen hinaus bekannt. Gut, als Simpel, aber bekannt. lol

[@beerleaguebrodeur7724]

A 3 hour episode dunking on Elon? Yeah, I'm gonna say this will be an all time favorite for me.

[@carlosagustin7724]

Same

[@ViolentOrchid]

The loop would have been taken over by 30-50 wild hogs

[@JopardBDS]

When Browning looked at perfecting the machine gun even he didn't have the genius of Elon Musk by placing the victims inside the bullets

[@UltraklystronMusic]

Realizing from the 1970's British Leyland car joke that Tesla literally is just "what if Lucas built the whole car, not just the electrical system."

[@jenjaynes8863]

I was in a focus group years ago that turned out to be for the hyperloop. After the guy explained the vaguest idea of the concept, we were all like "ok sure we like trains, seems fine". He had to correct us to "pod" every time we said train. I started saying train more on purpose bc it was funny.

[@cmarano]

Thanks Devon, your helpful 'added context' pop-up did result in a spit-take. I'm sending the dry cleaning bill to the Houthis.

[@jaysea5939]

2:38 not even the longest episode in the hopper?! Good luck Devon, don't die

[@felgraf9811]

Yeah they said on Twitter they recorded a 4hr one

[@jaysea5939]

@@felgraf9811 dang

[@lyndonwesthaven6623]

The hogs thank Devon for their service

[@christophervanerp1133]

14:10 re: the Virgin Atlantic flight of which Alice speaks: The plane was missing four screws (not bolts) that held on a non-structural panel to the top of the wing. such missing screws by themselves pose no threat to the plane's or passengers' safety. The screws were likely removed for scheduled maintenance by Virgin and either not put back before the plane left or not tightened enough. The missing screws, if not pointed out by the passenger, would likely be noticed at the next phase inspection, as the top surface of the wing isn't visible from the ground. Of course, it looks really bad for the company and speaks to a greater problem as to management and maintenance practices, so Virgin deserved to have this flight grounded, but there was no real danger to the flight.

[@erinwhite2017]

The Virgin Atlantic plane with bolts missing was an Airbus A330, which amusingly was called a Boeing Airbus A330 in many news stories. The Delta 757 in Atlanta was a 30 year old air frame, so I wouldn't necessarily blame that one on Boeing, I think it was just an unfortunately timed problem caused by improper maintenance. All this to say, I'm still not getting on a 737 Max again any time soon.

[@AbsolXGuardian]

The press really did the "bart no! Sorry, force of habit" meme

[@jamespocelinko104]

Given how zealously we salt our roads the Cybertruck wouldn't last a day in New Jersey.

[@ebnertra0004]

My current bet is that the first cybertruck sold in Minnesota will be reduced to a rust-like homogenate within the hour

[@jkattack2640]

1:28:16 I was SURE Alice was gonna say "one way to get more social cohesion is to embrace really fast trains"

[@doorhanger9317]

I mean, it certainly would be a way to do that!

[@afroponix3414]

The warm embrace of a train focused WTYP episode. All is right with the world..one can hope..

[@dantem4119]

Albuquerque being mentioned in a positive way in regards to transportation is always nice. We have issues but making people pay a pittance isn’t one of them

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Anything's better than Santa Fe amirite. I've only been to both once.

[@dantem4119]

@@cholulahotsauce6166santa fe is just full of old rich ny and la boomers lol

[@divisionisfakenews197]

"Touching tooters" sounds like something an eldery person would say.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

What are tooters? Sounds suspiciously like hooters, which is afaik an American semi-fast food chain with strange theming?

[@shuttheheckupkarl6153]

​@@BoraHorzaGobuchul In this case, slang for genitalia

[@DerplingKing]

The "Grabby Pole" is a sasumata, which is the direct descendant of one of a trio of police polearms dating back at least to the edo period. The other two were the tsukubo, which is a spiky pushbroom, and the sodegarami, a pole ending in a multidirectional series of hooks for tangling in sleeves

[@GoredonTheDestroyer]

I have shamelessly stolen the expression Chunky Marinara from this podcast.

[@algernonrex]

Two different Mountain Goats references, thank you November. Also appreciated Gareth getting in his classic catchphrase "I have a child."

[@lagos8010]

The original loop video was how I found this podcast, this feels like an anniversary celebration

[@davidwright7193]

Ah so Branson is a Jeremy who owns a private island, yep obviously a James Bond villain. Just remember it’s called a virgin train because it never goes all the way.

[@Cptn.Viridian]

I mean you guys had a video on The Loop (and talked about hyperloop) you yelled at it during the Vacuum Railway and SuperSonicTransport episodes, It's been featured on numberous news segments, and its been quite theoughouly debunked on Trashfuture and absolutely obliterated times over on RailNatter. I think you guys told us so

[@Gunni1972]

The Stainless steel Elon used for Cyber Truck is SpaceX-tested? That explains a lot. It's a single-use item. And yes, Bavaria is the Texas of Germany.

[@JulianSildenLanglo]

I love that she noticed the Mini-Pres of Bavaria at 2:06:27, and righly called him out as the Kim Jong-Il of Bavaria.

[@evefletch7215]

Please put “ft: Gareth Dennis” in the title of the episode so we know before clicking that it’ll be an extra good one this week

[@danger_vince819]

7 mins in and the phrase "sucked off" is yet to be deployed. Personally I thank Gareth for this return to "normal" service. Yeah Gareth ❤

[@davidegaruti2582]

Ok i actually started a whole worldbuilding project from the quote alice made on the last hyperloop video "If you want travel , you have two ways : 1) trains 2) bikes" Or basically that is the jist of it

[@JustDiptych]

Sadly, I don't think it would be practical to have a world based around handcars, even though they're the bikes of trains.

[@Spanderson99]

I have based several IRL trips around this concept. Add boats to the equation, load up your bike and give it a go!

[@davidegaruti2582]

@@Spanderson99 ok , over time i came to the conclusion that sailing ships are basically nature's trains : they use a low friction surface (water) and take energy from an external power supply (the wind) ... you just need to consider the ocean and winds an infrastructure ...

[@davidegaruti2582]

@@JustDiptych good joke ... but yeah no it's two different societies one wich uses trains the other uses bikes ...

[@alexmckay1760]

50:45 speaking of every city installing Ferris wheels, y'all might appreciate the Melbourne Star. Opened years behind schedule. Was open for 40 days before a worker installing LEDs found 3 metre cracks in it. It was closed for repairs for half a decade, at one point during this the wheel broke free. And within a week of reopening they found another crack in one of the cabins and also randomly stopped turning.

[@alexmckay1760]

It's also built on a swamp

[@RedSaint83]

19:00 Alice said something that included the phrase "shake hands" on TrashFuture and had a similar reaction, just expecting the "shake hands with danger" stinger.

[@bearVshark100]

I got to ride the Shinkansen last year and knowing that I’ll probably never be able to afford to travel to Japan and ride it again makes me want to cry. Why would anyone want any other type of transportation?

[@dankeykang1589]

Man, a smooth silent 3 hour ride with ample leg room. Then coming home to Aus and having to take 3 bus changes and 12 hours to do the same distance ... at twice the cost lmao

[@Artemie-np3qu]

Trains are cool, I’ll give them that, but planes are just cooler. Saying “fuck you” to gravity all day, every day, for 120 years.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

​​@@Artemie-np3quafter 9/11 the security theater has made planes a very unpleasant mode of transportation

[@Artemie-np3qu]

@@BoraHorzaGobuchul I would agree, but I literally want to be a Pilot, so clearly it’s not bad enough to overcome my desire to fly lol. But honestly that’s a fair point.

[@Mickulty]

Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:05:55 The GD News: Tesla Cybertruck Outclassed By A Subaru Outback 0:11:55 The GD News: 737 Max Outclassed By A Subaru Outback 0:17:23 Where Hyperloop Is Now 0:19:20 Background: Using Air to Move Trains 0:27:36 Background: Winners of High Speed Transport 0:35:03 Background: Losers of High Speed Transport 0:43:30 Background: Musk. 0:48:08 Hyperloop, Original Idea 1:00:36 Obvious Practical Considerations 1:12:03 Hyperloop vs The Bus 1:15:59 Lavatorial Digression 1:20:07 Hyperloop vs Serious HSR 1:33:12 Fate of Hyperloop Startups 2:21:17 More Credible Transport Technology 2:28:42 How Hyperloop Has Changed The World 2:35:20 Plausible Far Future Transport 2:42:09 Safety Third: Dirt Is Not A Dressing

[@prjndigo]

"... door being spring-loading ejected from a plane..." Important fact, the door itself will open itself in flight if you forget to secure the pins in it... UNLIKE THE GODDAMNED ACTUAL DOORS ON THE PLANE.

[@JK-zx3go]

2hrs 55mins and Gareth..... Niiiiiiiice

[@civishamburgum1234]

A lot of people like to Call Elon Musk a real life Toni Stark. I call him a real life Cave Johnson.

[@alaeriia01]

Cave Johnson is actually funny, though. And he did invent the portal gun, which would legitimately be a great mass transit solution.

[@civishamburgum1234]

@@alaeriia01 I don't know. The Portal gun works only on specific kinds of surfaces and the portals can really only acommidate one person. Since you need line of sight to place a portal, there is really only a very limited amount of scenarios were a portal gun is an effective and efficient solution. (Really only moonfearring)

[@eclipserepeater2466]

@@civishamburgum1234 Well, shoot on portal, put portal gun on a truck / train / boat, shoot second portal, and just leave them open permanently. The moonshot shows that portals can cover any distance you'd find on earth easily, so you have a small throughput but *instantaneous* means of transportation between any two points on earth. Though it's not clear how much energy it takes to maintain the portals, if any. The portal gun itself is nuclear powered, I think? If it runs out of juice will the portals disappear? I'd guess so. So basically you've got a system which can deliver single people or small amounts of cargo with zero delay and at likely huge energy cost. And no real land footprint, which is a point above hyperloop!

[@Sabundy]

Phony Stark is more like it

[@JustinReeves]

really regretting playing this in the office without headphones and I haven't even gotten to "yay Liam"

[@alexwood020589]

"the problem with fixed way engineering is our drawings are unreasonably long" Underrated comment right there!

[@plum_swf]

"...the key phrase, limited by geometryyyyyy. Write that in your copy-books, now." 'Look Around You' flashbacks abound

[@el1751]

another wtyp with gareth, WOO! thank you all and esp thank devon

[@willowarkan2263]

Guys and gal, there's 13 million Quechua speakers in what is the former Tahuantinsuyo(translates to four regions), the realm governed by the Inca, whose the head of state btw. Quechua being the official language of the empire, although quite a lot of other languages used to be spoken, some I know are still active like Aimara. There seems to be another 5 million Aimara speakers, concentrated around Bolivia

[@Ms42Night]

Snort. 3min in “we actually ah e time pressure this time”, me surprised and looks at phone for length of episode thinking “wait wasn’t this one of the longer ones” Still love you dorks

[@Furore2323]

Devon absolutely _nails_ the Australian national character in one sentence.

[@Saladjones828]

100%

[@spamviking]

I can imagine them hanging about, watching and hearing Elon carry on, and one of them whispering to the others, "Oi... you blokes want to knock off his fucking sub?"

[@shadowmaster1313]

I was listening to that part like, of course you take the sub off Elon's hands. Is that not a normal reaction outside Australia?

[@Furore2323]

Don't know why y'all are talking about Alice's cave sub anecdote when I clearly named Devon in my comment.

[@kathmaguire6776]

Always delighted when a new wtyp lands. Having Gareth on board is a welcome bonus.

[@ferchrissakes]

Oh Devon. Teasing even longer episodes minutes into this one? Evil. Pure evil. Love it.

[@phathumdeep]

You know what they say: Hate early, hate often

[@eugenedancingqueen4707]

liam at the start going "i got two and a half hours i can make it work," and looking at the 3 hour runtime, never change....

[@Whammytap]

The Wheel of Mediocrity is in Kansas City. Yup, even our little midwestern burg just had to jump on that hype wagon. It's not very tall and located on low terrain. The Wheel of Mediocrity offers breathtaking views of the rooftops of industrial buildings and an eight-lane interstate highway overpass, and tantalizing glimpses of the two-acre homeless encampment that exists beneath said overpass. It costs $45 to ride. It can only safely and conveniently be reached by car, and your car will probably be broken into before your very eyes as you watch helplessly from the comfort of your pod.

[@LavastormSW]

A three hour WTYP episode on how stupid the hyperloop is?? Truly we are blessed this day

[@robk7266]

How is this a disaster? The death of the hyper loop is a good thing

[@dftp]

Well a tremendous amount of resources and time was wasted on it. I guess that's a kind of disaster. But, better it's dead than still wasting more resources!

[@sassquatch6108]

The disaster is that they derailed a bunch of actually useful train / transit projects like High-speed rail in California. All so Elon could sell a few more Teslas. Which he could have done much more easily by improving design/QA on his cars and not running his employees ragged.

[@prjndigo]

dollar per dollar an aqueduct where you rent an inflatable tube for the actual manufacture cost of the tube and the water is kept moving by wind is more viable than the hyperloop AND will handle more passengers

[@kwarra-an]

Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun, too!

[@DAFLIDMAN]

Remember everyone Gareth has children

[@lyndonwesthaven6623]

S'fine, even if Elon wanted to put a hit on them, he'd send assassins in a cybertruck

[@adam_nathan]

Boeing has fundamentally lost the ability to manufacture planes properly because they sold off a bunch of their manufacturing facilities and hired them back as subcontractors: bringing up the cost and reducing cohesion in the design process. Airbus had similar issues at one point but has brought a bunch of production facilities back in-house and also have granted decent working conditions which attracts and retains top talent.

[@LeCharles07]

29:19 those TGVs look like Star Wars trains. The white stripe on red with the hard edges and defined panels just screams Star Wars to me.

[@markberg6197]

GARETH SAID THE NAME OF THE THING IN THE THING OMG!!!!!!

[@GorgeDawes]

Saying the name of the thing is tight!

[@arthropodqueen]

the hyperloop episode is what got me into this podcast, so i'm glad it got a sequel

[@JetFresh]

I'm glad for the return on the damage sound when Devon adds a Devontation, reminds me to pause and tab back in!

[@TheRealE.B.]

I like how the Pittsburgh hyperloop render implies that the loop would just blow past Pittsburgh without actually stopping. And also require partial demolition of the bridge that it's shown running next to.

[@elmer4090]

You know the pod's gonna be good when it's 3 hours long and has gareth denis

[@daniellemeyer5159]

Really crappy day at work. so glad to turn off my depressing work thoughts with a less depressing WTYP. And with Gareth! The Gareth episodes are my favorite.

[@jonathankim4215]

43:18 i refuse to let a mountain goats reference go unacknowledged. Hell yes. (The song in question is Pigs that ran straightaway into the water, triumph of)

[@DjCipralex]

Grease, oil, bird droppings, tree resin, dead insects, tar spots, road salt. Just a list of things to remember when you see a cyberduck

[@MrJimheeren]

That was 3 hours of pure joy. I always love it when Garrett is on. He truly is the best guest

[@tarasaurus98]

3 hours? Oh that's the good stuff baby

[@Uwaga.lewacki.belkot]

Trans rights 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ person

[@goop_lord]

Bold of Alice to describe California's render industry as "burgeoning" when Pixar has been at it for decades

[@user-eo3ny4jc5p]

Nearly 3 hrs!! 63 slides! Love it

[@misterjt961]

the hyperloop is dead, long live the hyperloop. next up: man who cant make truck with non-fistable panel gaps wants to put things in your fucking skull.

[@bobsmith2637]

The Metroliner wasn't the only thing to come out of the High Speed Ground Transport act, you also got the United Aircraft TurboTrain. We had them in Canada too, where Canadian National and then VIA Rail operated a few into the early 1980s. They had a bunch of problems when new and were of course quite hard on fuel like any gas-turbine train, but after CN's were overhauled in the early 1970s most of the problems went away (Penn Central and Amtrak never tried this, and just tried to get rid of them by running them into the ground). The Turbo still holds both the Canadian and American rail speed records, though in revenue service track conditions ended up forcing them to operate no faster than the old conventional coaches and locomotives.

[@Dancingonthesun]

Alice I have a deeper voice too and hearing your natural voice has made me feel more confident with my own t damaged vocal chords. Its hard being mismatched and i really enjoy hearing your takes on things, you ooze confidence I wish I had

[@ThrowawayEmail-bo4xx]

*3 hours *about trains *Gareth *Less than 4 minutes in and Devon's edits have me rolling on the floor This is going to be a good one

[@crionjb]

"The wheels that hunt" is a crazy phrase. I know a number of American trucks that do that