EricsBiscuit
Well-Known Member
I think the draw for solar, to me at least, is independence.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Tokyo cars spotted near the speedway
- Thread starter Bacon
- Start date
danlb_2000
Premium Member
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/07/why-elon-musk-tweeted-about-a-new-york-to-d-c-hyperloop.html
". By way of clarification, a spokesperson for the company told The Guardian that his boss was referring to “promising conversations” with government officials"
So basically he was probably having a chat with someone in government and they said "that would be a cool idea". There would be massive hurdles to cross before this became a reality. There are no actual "approval" of anything at this point.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
Technically he is "boring under LA". They are digging a test tunnel on the property of Space X's LA headquarters. Classic case of omitting key details to make it sound more impressive then it really is.
trainplane3
Well-Known Member
Yes and then you board a SpaceX rocket and to Mars. That'll replace space mountain with a true space travel experience.
jt04
Well-Known Member
Well if by "test tunnel" you mean an actual tunnel that will provide transport between two sites then I guess you are right.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
It doesn't seem that he has done anything beyond a test tunnel on his own property...
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnels/
and there isn't anything remarkable about this. Pretty standard boring technology and no plans to use it for a hyperloop. I don't deny Elon has done some cool stuff and has some ambitious ideas, but we are a long way from hyperloop transportation between major cities, assuming it every happens.
jt04
Well-Known Member
All the boring company needs is the first working tunnel to demonstrate feasibility. Then the company will become exceedingly boring. I don't see any hurdles that can stop the process once people understand just how common sense it is.
Unplugged
Well-Known Member
You're right on about this. Dare I say, (as many in these forums consider this blasphemy), Musk is a LOT like Walt Disney. Both have/had visions of great ideas, some their own, some are improvements on others ideas. If we reflect back on Walt's vision for EPCOT, which was never realized as our EPCOT is a theme park, WED had some marvelous ideas, many were not their inventions but the bettering of existing ideas. It's that grand vision of pulling it all together that makes leaps and bounds in the push for a greater future. This is also much akin to how Steve Jobs functioned. All pulled existing ideas, added their uniqueness to them and created great products for it. It's the end vision that drives the here and now production. They also are or were very belittling to their staff that didn't see the vision or didn't push hard enough for the vision. That's not a bad thing if you go into it knowing that your contribution and invention is part of a greater effort.
Sorry so long.....anyway, my point is that while the hyperloop may not come to fruition, at least not now, and it is not a new concept, this is the first physical iteration on such a grand scale. After all, you put papers into a drive-up bank tube which transports it to the teller, who returns money or receipts to you via the same bi-directional tube. Someone has to make prototypes of this on a large scale to demonstrate and refine the concepts. Only through pushing the visions to grander scale can we ever justify the viability of ideas. Musk may not have 100% success in the way we are used to seeing it, but what he accomplishes by pushing those visions, betters us all when the technology and ideas are leveraged elsewhere.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
If you don't see any hurdles then you have obviously never been to a zoning board meeting.
jt04
Well-Known Member
Not sure they have jurisdiction all the way to the center of the earth. Or even less. Guess we will find out.
Seriously, if the first tunnel works, there will be no issues of significance. IMO.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
We already know, the article I linked to is about the hearings with the first town he wants to go under.
People have been building highways and rail systems for decades and yet new ones routinely meet with resistance during the zoning process.
jt04
Well-Known Member
If it works planning and zoning boards will be begging for more boring in their town. Or they can choose to be voted out.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I've been on the Tokyo Disneyland Speedway several times in the last couple decades. They had a nifty feature to prevent bumping; if you came within a foot or two of the car ahead of you your car would come to a stop. It was impossible to bump the car ahead of you, because bumping is impolite. I hope they bring that feature to WDW's Speedway, which may be why they've shipped the cars over from Tokyo's closed version.
You obviously haven't been to Japan lately. They are quite noticeably behind America when it comes to the middle classes ownership and use of new technology; smartphones, Apps, web-based services, mobile technology, home TV tech, cable and Internet, etc.
Tokyo Disneyland, for example, doesn't have a wait time app. There is no public WiFi available in the Tokyo parks. They don't have any form of electronic Fastpass (MagicBands, Maxpass, etc.), you still just have to pull paper Fastpasses one at a time like it was 2002. Websites are all circa 2006. Cash is king and it's harder to pay with credit cards. Uber (as we know it, it's just a taxi-hailing service in Japan) doesn't exist in Tokyo, you take the subway or your own car to the park. Etc., etc., etc.
What is this- 1990?
That's not remotely true anymore; in fact, quite the opposite.
I know, right?!? What's the most fascinating, is that there are Americans in 2017 who still think Japanese society is so far advanced than America. It's the exact opposite. The Japanese should congratulate their PR teams from the late 1980's who got that marketing concept going so strongly that it still has legs in 2017. Japan is a lovely country, and their Disneyland beats the snot out of anything we have here (maintenance, cleanliness, service, CM appearance, entertainment).
But when it comes to daily use of technology, especially for the middle classes, they are a decade behind how the average American lives.
Last edited:
JimW
Premium Member
Don't forget dishwasher detergent...They do have america beat in toilets and bathtubs- theirs are crazy
TP2000
Well-Known Member
They do have america beat in toilets and bathtubs- theirs are crazy
Okay, you're right, I forgot about the toilets. About a decade ago I went to the Toto Toilet Showroom on the 40th floor of a skyscraper in Shinjuku. I spent an hour there looking over the exhibits, while uniformed hostesses demonstrated the various features and cutting-edge toilet technology and offered tea and cookies. It was HYSTERICAL! America still hasn't caught up when it comes to toilets, and likely never will.
Although, I have noticed that high-end hotels in Los Angeles and San Francisco now include the, ahem, features of Japanese toilets in their suites. So like the Honda motorbikes in the early 1960's that were a SoCal Craze, and became an everyday American thing by the 1980's, maybe things will finally spread east from California when it comes to that.
Back to Disney, the anti-bumping technology they used in Tokyo Disneyland's Speedway was pretty basic 1990's stuff. A simple radar sensor in the front bumper that triggered whenever you got too close to the car in front of you and it would kill the engine. Bumping problem solved. But it would require occasional maintenance and calibration, which to TDO and TDA means money, so they just don't want to be bothered with the expense even though it creates a better experience for the paying customers.
Last edited:
rocketraccoon
Well-Known Member
More cars have shown up in that spot since the thread was made.
Sorry for the blurry photo. Forgot this was even a thing until I had already gone into Space Mountain so I had to get it on the way out.
Sorry for the blurry photo. Forgot this was even a thing until I had already gone into Space Mountain so I had to get it on the way out.
Monorail Mike
Well-Known Member
More cars have shown up in that spot since the thread was made.
Sorry for the blurry photo. Forgot this was even a thing until I had already gone into Space Mountain so I had to get it on the way out.
Why is it that everyone on this thread says the cars are spotted, when clearly they are striped?
Monorail Mike
Well-Known Member
Okay, you're right, I forgot about the toilets. About a decade ago I went to the Toto Toilet Showroom on the 40th floor of a skyscraper in Shinjuku. I spent an hour there looking over the exhibits, while uniformed hostesses demonstrated the various features and cutting-edge toilet technology and offered tea and cookies. It was HYSTERICAL! America still hasn't caught up when it comes to toilets, and likely never will.
Although, I have noticed that high-end hotels in Los Angeles and San Francisco now include the, ahem, features of Japanese toilets in their suites. So like the Honda motorbikes in the early 1960's that were a SoCal Craze, and became an everyday American thing by the 1980's, maybe things will finally spread east from California when it comes to that.
Back to Disney, the anti-bumping technology they used in Tokyo Disneyland's Speedway was pretty basic 1990's stuff. A simple radar sensor in the front bumper that triggered whenever you got too close to the car in front of you and it would kill the engine. Bumping problem solved. But it would require occasional maintenance and calibration, which to TDO and TDA means money, so they just don't want to be bothered with the expense even though it creates a better experience for the paying customers.
We've got our best Muppet working on it...
