Elon Musks TED Talk: Shaping the Future with 3D Tunnels and Hyperloop

Abstract

Institutional Affiliation 23rd March 2021 Response to TED TALK about “The Future we’re building- and boring” by Elon Musk Introduction The diverse technology of Elon Musk continues to restructure, revitalize and redefine industries such as transportation and energy that will have substantial impact to the world. The inspiration towards a beautiful future drives Elon to provide sustainable solutions to humankind through future innovations like 3D tunnel network, hyperloop, autonomy system of driving and solar glass roofs. These improvements in technology have considerable impact to the world and the question whether they should be a priority to the humanity right now. 3D tunnel network is the future technology for solving congestion in highways. Traffic as a major issue is affecting people everywhere in the world and no sustainable solutions has been found yet. Elon is trying to avoid the traffic above the ground by speeding ahead below the ground. The concept of 3D tunnel network comes with no speed limit since the design is expected to function at 200 kilometers an hour (Pangambam, 2018). In the future, the tunnels will benefit the world through weatherproof operations since rain, surface temperatures and wind will not interfere with the system operations (TBC, 2021). Also, the surface construction has always been noisy with a lot of vibration; however, tunnel constructions in the future will reduce surface impact and noise pollution as it will be invisible, hidden with no noise (TBC, 2021). The world needs an alternative with unlimited capacity just like tunnel construction since it has no practical limit to the number of layers for constructing tunnels (TBC, 2021). This means any current and future capacity is attainable unlike surface system where an additional lane is impossible to achieve. These features make a 3D tunnel network suitable to transform the traffic issues around the world right now and in the future. Elon is visualizing of a hyperloop in a tunnel covering long distances since most of the tunnel constructions capable of resisting water table, are by design able to hold vacuum. The hyperloop system will be the future transportation technology which is estimated to be quicker than the world’s fastest bullet trains (Pangambam, 2018). It is powered by electricity and solar power. This is like reducing a 3 hour trip to 30 minutes and now we have to think of what this difference can do to the world within 10 to 25 years. The hyperloop system enables shorter journeys especially into the capital cities which in turn create employment opportunities in engineering and technology and improve on tourism activities (GRR, 2018). Also, the future of access to education will be easy basing on how universities around the world are spread around each country. The challenge that many students face is choosing a university that is appropriate and is close to home. The introduction of hyperloop will provide a city to city connection which will decrease the travel time rapidly and the students will no longer be restricted on choosing universities. Furthermore, hyperloop can solve housing crisis in the future. Take for instance the situation in London where the cost of living is driving away the residents since they are not financially stable (GRR, 2018). As a result, reducing the cost of travelling around the country via hyperloop will enable the residents to commute to the city. As the cost of living is affordable in Edinburgh, people will choose to live there instead of London. The same situation is similar in Los Angeles where the houses are cheaper as compared to San Francisco but the travel time of 30 minutes can be made possible via hyperloop (GRR, 2018). Also, the hyperloop is designed to carry both passengers and goods. This system will benefit the delivery time, steer clear of damage to the packages and reduce the number of delivery vehicles on the road (GRR, 2018). These advantages show how hyperloop system will create a big change in human inventiveness and opportunities to the world. Elon is driving at achieving autonomy system of driving with the new Model 3, the Tesla Semi truck with autopilot. The model is designed to only use cameras and GPS where the road system is suppose to steer with passive optical which provides autonomy (Pangambam, 2018)....