Why do those pictures...
Somehow remind me of some kind of alien invasion ?
Earlier this week, Mashable, a clickbait site for millennials, showcased a novel urban transport system. It got very excited, calling it "dope" and the "future of transportation". The "gyroscopic" transport concept involves giant pods precariously balanced at treetop height that rumble along little-used median strips – the …
Sadly the middle pillar of every motorway bridge blocks them here. Also adding extra lanes or cash saving means some newer ones have wire cable dividers (AKA Cheese Cutters). Don't some places in USA use a concrete wall divider.
Maybe (like Musk?) is an SF fan and found he has a talent for CAD and CGI but not so much for writing. I think Musk pays other people to make the pictures.
And what about crossing a bridge? You either have one span for all lanes that has no 'median', or two spans with empty space in the middle. How does this thing get across bridges? Not all bridges are made the same way, some would not allow something of that height to pass because of the structure above the road.
You'd have to design a whole city with this in mind. While that's something China could do if they ever fill up the existing ghost cities, it isn't applicable to the rest of the world.
Concrete dividers ("Jersey barriers") are pretty common on freeways, temporarily in construction zones and permanently in places where there's no room for a proper central median. Most states are also installing wire cable barriers in the medians of freeways -- done properly they've been shown to greatly reduce head-on crashes, by catching and redirecting cars that are crossing over the median.
FWIW, this whole BS sci-fi fantasy concept has been throughly debunked elsewhere...
Including: Bridges, taller vehicles, vehicles crossing the "monorail/lanes", accidents, weight loading on the monorail/lane, power supply for the vehicle, failure modes when power fails, boarding and disembarking and that's before anything malicious is involved.
Has two examples of cars in that "unused" space, the brown car in the top right, and the silver car in the bottom right.
People occasionally do need to change lanes, join/leave roundabouts , go across junctions etc.
And I'm sure they would prefer to do that without having to worry about smacking into some mobile pillars.
Or being crushed after a failure of whatever active stabilization these things are using.
The Chinese version was actually built:
Rails.
Not that I'm supporting this concept. The guy reminds me of a 3D Studio Max fanatic I knew on a course years ago.
That said, the whole point of concepts is to be presented and then either knocked down or picked up. If this bloke's role in life is to generate lots of ideas for others to filter, then fair enough.
If someone is that worried about earthquakes, why not just put the bed under a strong cage that has open sides? It's only the top that really matters, and that way there's no moving parts to fail or mangle the sleeper. It will be stronger and cheaper too.
The real problem tho is what happens when you're NOT on the bottom floor. In that case you may survive being crushed only to find yourself entombed in a big pile of burning rubble.
In most earthquake zones these issues are addressed by one-storey buildings with flexible construction (no bricks please). In Los Angeles there are very few deaths due to quakes because the houses just don't collapse easily, being almost 100% stick built.
The biggest flaw is that nobody who lives in earthquake country is all that worried about earthquakes. They are certainly not stressed out enough to spend ten or tens of thousands of dollars on a bed.The few who are that stressed out ... move.
As a side note, I live in earthquake country. The Rogers Creek Fault almost but not quite crosses this property. It'll probably produce a 7.5 or so sometime in the next couple decades.Because of this, I have EQ preparedness kit ready for everyone who lives here, including the livestock. We should be good for a couple months, if needs be[0]. However, in all that kit there isn't a single gas mask No need for one. Dust masks, yes. But not gas masks. What exactly is Buckminski expecting? And how the fuck does he expect anybody to quickly access a fire extinguisher buried in a metal box?
[0] Not paranoid, pragmatic. When, not if.
The video does show the beds include an air tank and water. If there's a chemical CO2 scrubber under there as well, perhaps that's the plan - just keep the entombed customer alive for a day or so while the rescue services dig their way down. I'd hope there's a signalling device in there beyond just banging on the lid
It can't be Russia, there's no Ladas in sight in any of those pix.
I used to drive a Lada, once, long ago; the Communist Italian imitation Fiat lacked acceleration, couldn't climb hills, had a top speed of around 80 MPH downhill with a tailwind, and (shockingly for a Russian, sorry, Soviet, vehicle) didn't have a heater. Or air conditioning. He was, however, indestructible. I miss him. I once was in a collision with a Toyota; the Japanese tin needed a new front end, Captain Scarlet's superior Soviet Steel construction meant that he had a slightly bent bumper. There'll be Ladas still on Russia roads for decades. No Ladas in those pix. That ain't Russia.
"the Communist Italian imitation Fiat lacked acceleration, couldn't climb hills, had a top speed of around 80 MPH downhill with a tailwind, and (shockingly for a Russian, sorry, Soviet, vehicle) didn't have a heater."
Exactly like the Fiat original, in fact.
Have a look on youtube for 'Stop a douchebag' videos, not many Ladas in those, mostly better cars than I see daily in Ibiza.
This Dahir guy is just an ideas man who can make CGIs to illustrate them, his building idea is not bad but there are no worthwhile details on his site to indicate anything meaningful to an architect or a civil engineer, particularly as he talks of the systembeing able to go to 50 stories. What is in the videos will not do that.
(shockingly for a Russian, sorry, Soviet, vehicle) didn't have a heater. Or air conditioning
Sounds like a Morris Minor. Which is *supposed* to have a heater but the temperature differential from ambient is pretty hard to detect..
And I'm reliably informed that it does have air conditioning. Apparently, it's called "a window".
I was so disappointed when YouTube pulled down all the Retspurae videos that riffed on these. Their one about the earthquake bed (they called it a "hell bed") was particularly great. "This has all my nightmares! Look, there's the one with that thing!"
The full ridiculousness of Dahir cannot really be understood until you've seen the giant quadcopters, though.
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We need more visionaries like Bucky with his sense of reality and practicality. This guy.. is a dreamer but with no sense of reality or practicality. Or maybe he's just a scammer with dreams?
BTW, one thing noted... there's no power/phone lines or poles in his world. In the real world, they're all over the place.
I am all in favour of what used to be called lateral thinking (now thinking outside some box or other) and originally "mad Victorian inventor" as a general motivating force but this could happen because the central priority lane is for commissars riding in ZIL's, yes?
Or does that no longer happen in the New Russia? Oligarchs in Mercedes then?