sure "most amazing" is debatable
but that's not what you said. You said he is mediocre. What made you say he is mediocre?
but that's not what you said. You said he is mediocre. What made you say he is mediocre?
I don’t see this (or any of his other ideas) as coming from someone with an abnormal level of intelligence.
He may have the ability to hire people who can execute well on ideas (though I also think that Tesla’s achievement are over-hyped). He may have good business sense, and the ability to raise money. But I don’t see him as having an amazing intellect... so I’d be interested in evidence that shows that...
So you look at Elon's entire history of ideas, and the one thing that caught your eye first was Hyperloop?
Why did you name the Hyperloop? Is Elon working on a Hyperloop company?
Those things you mentioned "hire people who execute well on ideas", "good business sense", "ability to raise money". Those are medicore skills?
We don't know each other in person, but from online-chatting with you, you sound like you have good intelligence. Can you do any of those?
I think you underestimate the degree to which luck plays a role in the development of companies.
High vacuums are expencive to maintain and take longer to achieve after a leak, but would allow for faster speeds. They also force maglev or something like it to achieve those speeds which is expensive. It also forces you to carry an indecent air supply, and cooling becomes a significant issue.
At STP you just have a normal train which is limited to a few hundred miles an hour.
Between those extremes you need to deal with some air but you can compress it for passengers. Further, you can quickly pump down the air pressure using fewer pumps. You can fly / use ground effect avoiding the mag lev issues.
Heat is really the largest issue, compressing air heats it as does friction, and your passengers / equipment also generate heat. So, you would want the air kept at very low temperates.
Why not just use nag lev? You get faster speeds and as strange as it sounds lower cost per mile of track.
TLDR; Lots of useful trade offs.