In March of 2011, Evacuated tube transport technologies: a maximum value global transportation network for passengers and cargo was published. A year later, ET3 was getting significant media attention with the headline New York to Bejing in 2 hours without leaving the ground. In 2012, ABC did a story about ET3-Space Travel on Earth. Weeks before Hyperloop was published in August of 2013, Elon Musk invited Daryl Oster of ET3 to SpaceX HQ.
Did ET3 directly influence Elon Musk Hyperloop? Absolutely. Is Hyperloop an improvement to ET3? Absolutely not.
During the 2hr meeting between Daryl and Elon, a licensee of ET3 Global Alliance-ET3GA asked Musk to support ET3 by tweeting #ET3. But during that 2hr conversation, Elon understood ET3 is disruptive to his (profitless) enterprise Tesla and refused to tweet about ET3. When Daryl mentioned Space Travel On Earth capabilities for sending things into space (e.g. Startram, Elon got a little agitated while claiming rockets are only means to send things into space.
"Open source" Hyperloop (Alpha) has no future because it doesn't exist. Nowhere does Hyperloop mention maglev suspension, yet Virgin Hyperloop One-VHL1, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies-HTT adopting maglev? It will be difficult for 'Hype' companies to compete against ET3. Over 20 years of R&D has been poured into ET3(China). ET3 is perfected, fully optimized Vacuum Tube Transport (VTT). It is great that Elon brought VTT to the mainstream and ET3GA is forever grateful for him doing so.
Metrics between non-existent Hyperloop (Alpha) and 3 reasons it will be difficult for VHL1 and HTT to compete against ET3 in the decade ahead.
In order to connect commerce, food, water, energy, people, etc., at 400/4000mph (local/int'l), a standardized tube diameter needs to be established. ET3 has determined that a diameter of 1.5m is optimal for VTT. The tube diameters of VHL1 and HTT are <2-3m. When you increase the tube diameter, cost increase drastically. ET3 tubes will be <2x cheaper p/mi than VHL1 and HTT tubes.
To enable speeds of 4000mph (e.g. NYC to LA in 45 min), a suspension system able to do so must be determined. ET3 has adopted High Temperature Superconductive Maglev with a lift to drag ratio of <1,000,000:1. VHL1 and HTT maglev suspension is from the '70s (Inductrack) with a lift to drag ration of >1000:1. Basically, VHL1 and HTT will never be able to reach ET3 top speeds due to their maglev suspension dealings with strong magnetic eddy currents.
ET3 car sized capsules operate from point to point with no intermittent stops, a superconductive tube transport highway. VHL1 and HTT operate like a train or bus, with frequent intermittent stops. Due to ET3 interchange methodology, its capable of transporting significantly more tonnage p/hr than VHL1 or HTT.
If you would like to be part of ET3GA and connect the world sustainably, all are welcome by joining ET3.net.