• SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    11 months ago

    The vacuum train thing is honestly a waste and is incredibly dangerous, but the fact that China has progressed further than Musk at the testing phase, all the while improving their public train transportation network to be the best in the world, is just chefs-kiss

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      11 months ago

      I wonder if you could do one purely for cargo on a limited scale the way pneumatic tube systems used to work in office buildings?

      • FlakesBongler [they/them]
        ·
        11 months ago

        I was so disappointed when I found out a lot of the old office buildings in my city had those tubes and they tore them all out

        I always wanted to send something in a tube and I never got a chance

        • Sinistar
          ·
          11 months ago

          I wonder if you could even get tubes installed nowadays. You would probably have to spin up a bespoke company to install them, hiring a bunch of people who've never done it before and training as you go, and then everyone would lose their job at the end of the process.

          Just like building railcars in the US.

          • TechnoUnionTypeBeat [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            11 months ago

            Founding a tube-based startup with a silly name missing a letter in it like Tubr or something, and you've gotta pay a subscription to keep access to your tubes, but you can send packages through them to other Tubr subscribers

            • Sephitard9001 [he/him]
              ·
              11 months ago

              You and a friend have to change your names so you can make the spunky new mail tube startup, 2-Bueller

          • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
            ·
            11 months ago

            Nah. Hospitals and certain labs still build new tube systems to move samples or radioactive material around, and some stadiums actually use them to do money drops. They've just largely been replaced in most office buildings by email, since the things usually sent in office towers were usually just papers.

        • ImmortanStalin@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          11 months ago

          Hospitals use tubes all the time. Whole buildings networked with tubes! Next time ask a nurse to see one. Or go to the lab, they give less of a shit lol

        • barrbaric [he/him]
          ·
          11 months ago

          I have used the tubes, it is even cooler than you think!

      • wopazoo [he/him]
        ·
        11 months ago

        Byford Dolphin

        read this as BYD Dolphin at first

        Show

        it's a Chinese electric hatchback that can now be bought in Europe, Australia, and Thailand