Daily Archives: March 31, 2021

A rendering of the Van Nuys monorail station in the San Fernando Valley.

Clogged roads, like sunshine, are an immutable part of Los Angeles life, but local officials are considering an audacious fix for commuters on the citys west side: a sleek, automated $6.1 billion monorail to whisk riders above soul-crushing freeway jams. It would be the biggest use of a technology for transit in the U.S. thats often relegated to amusement parks, airports and zoos.

Los Angeless transportation authority decided on March 25 to award up to $63.6 million to LA Skyrail Express, a consortium led by Chinese battery and electric-vehicle maker BYD thats aiming to build a 15-mile, eight-station monorail line over the 405 freeway. Those pre-development agreement funds cover a multiyear technical, architectural and operational assessment, not construction costs. A rival proposal for a $10.8 billion subway from a group led by construction giant Bechtel, running below the highway, also won PDA funds worth up to $69.9 million. A decision on which option to build is due by 2025, according to L.A. Metro.

For this corridor theres been a 40-year history of proposals for many different types of technologies, monorail being a couple of those, says Tom Stone, senior adviser to the Skyrail team, which includes John Laing Group, a U.K.-based infrastructure investor, Swedish construction company Skanska and top-ranked U.S. architectural firm Gensler. I'm almost glad it didn't happen earlier because over the last 20 years the technology has advanced so much.

The proposed monorail would run down the median of the 405 freeway, with stations located off the heavily trafficked stretch of road.

Dozens of transit systems around the globe, notably in Germany and Japan, have long used monorails. New-generation systems have opened in China and are under construction in India; So Paulo and Bahia, Brazil; Cairo; and Bangkok. Construction of the L.A. project would mark a U.S. breakthrough other parts of the country might follow. Maryland transportation officials are also studying a monorail to run above the I-270 freeway in suburban Washington D.C.

BYD has built multiple monorail lines in China and is supplying technology for projects in Brazil and elsewhere. The company, 8.2% owned by Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway, has also forged ties to Los Angeles, locating its North American headquarters in the city and selling it electric buses built at a BYD factory about an hour north in Lancaster, California. The facility would build monorail cars for the Skyrail project. A preliminary review of the monorail proposal by the Los Angeles County Transportation Authority ranked it the top choice based on factors including cost and technical feasibility.

A speedy electric monorail is far from the most extreme proposal for the city. Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk has proposed vacuum-tube hyperloop trains as the ultimate transit solution and a tunnel under the 405 with high-speed passenger pods. But his L.A.-based Boring Co. wasnt a contender for county transit funds.

Long-time L.A. transportation guru Martin Wachs, professor emeritus at UCLA and University of California, Berkeley, and a RAND Corp. researcher, is skeptical but open to the possibility a monorail could work in L.A. Hes less supportive of Musks tube-train idea: He says things like that. I don't think he'll deliver.

The consortium seeking to build a Los Angeles monorail proposes running the line all the way to LAX.

The goal of the competing monorail and subway proposals is some relief for the Sepulveda Pass portion of the 405, one of the most congested stretches of highway in the United States. The pass is a low point in L.A.s Santa Monica Mountains, snaking beneath foothills that are home to The Getty museum and luxury Bel Air and Brentwood enclaves, that has bedeviled transit planners and commuters for decades. The Skyrail line would run in the median, above the 405 freeway. Hundreds of thousands of vehicles per day drive up and down that section of freeway, and it often moves at a crawl even on weekends and non-rush hour periods. Traffic researcher INRIX ranked it the ninth-most congested U.S. highway segment in 2019. (Things eased in 2020 because of the pandemic, but volume is rebounding to pre-Covid-19 levels in 2021, INRIX tells Forbes.)

It's a lot like a bridge over a waterway. Traffic is funneled into that path, the way traffic is funneled onto the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Wachs says. There are few alternative routes.

Proposed monorail stations would be in the San Fernando Valley, The Getty museum, UCLA and LAX.

The Skyrail group says its quiet, elevated line would shuttle passengers from the Van Nuys commuter rail station in the San Fernando Valley to subway and light rail stations in west Los Angeles in 24 minutes. Given expectations of high demand, the goal is to operate six-car trains departing at two-minute intervals capable of carrying about 14,000 passengers per hour in each direction, according to L.A. Metro. The system will be designed to exceed that if necessary and operate eight-car trains, Skyrails Stone says. The group has also proposed an extended line to Los Angeles International Airport and says the entire project from the Valley to the airport can be built for less than $9.5 billionthe amount of funding Los Angeles has access to via its massive Measure M transit funding pool.

Monorail fans, especially science fiction author and L.A. resident Ray Bradbury, now deceased, touted the futuristic elevated railways as a cheap, easy-to-build transit option well-suited to Southern California, starting in the 1960s. L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground, Bradbury wrote in a 2006 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. And although a monorail in nearby Anaheim has ferried Disneyland visitors since 1959, such transit systems have made little headway as a U.S. mobility solution. The technology was skewered as a boondoggle in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons written by Conan OBrien, Marge Vs. The Monorail. Bankruptcy filings by the privately run Las Vegas Monorail in 2011 and 2020 didnt help its reputation (the citys convention and visitors authority has taken over that project). Transit researchers say challenges include costs that typically arent as low as hoped and operational efficiency that hasnt been as good as that of conventional train and subway lines.

A potential monorail station near a shopping mall in Los Angeles.

When you actually work out the numbers and do a careful and thorough design, and consider that in most places where a transit route is being contemplated it's being added to an existing network, it just hasn't penciled out, says Wachs. He remembers reviewing a monorail proposal for the 405 that was considered and rejected 50 years agoand discussions with Bradbury about monorails.

He didn't care about practical matters like soil conditions and the placement of overpasses. He was much more concerned about concepts and images and dreams, which is fine, Wachs says. The worlds a better place for having people who are visionaries, but it also needs traditional engineers.

L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground.

Transit monorail lines do work well, such as those in Sydney, Australia and Japan, but they dont integrate easily into overall systems owing to unique track configuration, he says. It doesn't compete when doing a careful analysis and systematic comparison of alternatives, especially when a traditional, dual rail line is part of a larger system, because then the vehicles can move over the entire system.

Thats an important consideration as Los Angeles works to massively scale up and weave its transit system together. The current construction wave began with a new light-rail line from downtown to Santa Monica in 2016 and was supercharged later that year by a sales tax increase that provides at least $120 billion over four decades. The Measure M initiative is the largest local transportation measure ever passed in U.S. historytimes two, Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a March 18 press conference. The city is also pushing to complete multiple projects ahead of hosting the 2028 Olympic Games. Those include subway system extensions; an underground connector downtown to better integrate service on existing train lines; connecting LAX to new train stations; a light-rail line for the San Fernando Valley; and the competing Skyrail and subway proposals. All this at a time when ridership of public transit throughout the U.S. has been in decline because of the pandemic.

BYD adviser Stone says theres a monorail knowledge gap in the U.S. about how well monorail systems already work in dense urban environments in India, Japan and China. They haven't ridden on those systems, he says. Urban planners haven't seen them. They don't understand they really do operate at high speed and high capacity.

Proposed station at UCLA in west Los Angeles.

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Its Not Elon Musks Hyperloop But Car-Clogged L.A. May ...

TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) Elon Musk is showing his new home state of Texas some love, bringing both jobs and charitable donations to the Lone Star State.

The billionaire tweeted that hes donating$20 million to Cameron County schools and $10 million to the City of Brownsville for downtown revitalization to further encourage talent to move in the area.

Then, in a second tweet following his altruistic pledge on March 30, Musk tweeted SpaceX needs engineers, technicians, builder and other workers in and around the Brownsville area of Texas.

SpaceXs launch site also called Starbase is located in nearby Boco Chica Village, though the company is based in Hawthorne, California. Its expected to grow by several thousand people over the next year or two, according to Musk.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEOs call to action and now hiring notice hit Twitter within an hour of the fourth failed SpaceX test launch Tuesday morning. The latest SpaceX Starship SN11 rocket prototype broke apart right before touchdown at the South Texas test site.

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SpaceX Is Hiring, Elon Musk Is Giving Millions To South Texas Town, School - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Early Friday morning, 1:18 a.m. Pacific time, to be exact, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an interesting tweet.

It was in response to a Twitter user who predicted that full self-driving would eventually become the "biggest thing ever," pushing Tesla past Apple as the world's biggest company.

"I think there is a >0% chance Tesla could be the biggest company"

Fair enough. Greater than zerois mathematically correct--butnothing to get excited about.

Then, within seconds, another Twitter user did get excited:

"Love the direction of that arrow!"

To which Musk then responded:

"Probably in a few months."

A short time thereafter, Musk deleted the tweet. (You can still see it here, as reported by The Washington Post.)

Of course, there are a number of theories as to what might have happened here. Did Musk mistakenly respond to the wrong tweet?

Probably not. (Agreater than zero percent chance? Sure.)

More likely, though, Musk had second thoughts.More likely, he realized the power his tweet could have to move the market, inspire a hefty fine, and distract Musk from what he truly wants to do--just work.

To fully understand this hypothesis, we have to go back a few years.

Back in 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with Musk and Tesla afterthe famous CEO tweeted that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share,a substantial premium to its trading price at the time. The settlement resulted in stricter controls over what Musk was allowed to share on social media, specifically if it contained information that was "material" to shareholders.

That original "funding secured" tweet also led to a $20 million fine--a fine thatMusk once said was "worth it."Not surprising when you consider that, as one of the world's wealthiest men,$20 million probably feels like small change.

But it's likely not the fine that bothers Musk the most when it comes to situations like this.

As a man who prides himself more on his ability to solve engineering problems than on his leadership prowess, Musk is well aware of how much of a distraction it is to be in hot water with the SEC. It takes time and mental energy toface legal proceedings, not to mention the media attention it creates.

Now, while Musk's latest tweet wasn't explicit, it could easily be perceived as having the power to influence the markets in Tesla's favor--which quite possibly would have, yet again, drawn the ire of the SEC.

But by deleting the tweet, Musk likely saved himself from countless hours of potential distraction, allowing him to focus on his work.

So, where doesemotional intelligenceenter the picture?

You'd expect the chief executive of a company to shoot for the stars, and when it comes to CEOs, Musk may be the most bullish of them all.

Additionally, through the years Musk has established quite the reputation for engaging with his followers on social media. It's that accessibility, coupled with his authenticity and his mission, that has helped Musk make Tesla the most valuable automaker in the world.

But a strength can easily become a weakness when it's not kept in balance. While responding to Twitter followers builds clout, late night/early morning tweets have a way of coming back to haunt you.

Would it have been better for Musk to resist the urge to tweet when he did? Possibly. But we've all made mistakes like that.

The key is to learn from those mistakes--and in this case, it seems like Musk has. Hopefully, by deleting the tweet when he did, he'll avoid a run-in with the SEC, allowing him to focus his energies elsewhere.

So remember: The next time you're tempted, resist the urge to make a permanent decision on a temporary emotion.

It's usually just not worth it.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Elon Musk Sent (and Deleted) a Tweet at 1:20 in the Morning. It's a Lesson in Emotional Intelligence - Inc.

Elon Musk has apparently confirmed that SpaceXs Starship has been destroyed.

The company had hoped to conduct a successful test of the Mars-bound spacecraft that would see it take off before coming back down to safely land.

But in the middle of that test, SpaceX cut the live stream with little explanation. Videos taken nearby suggested that the Starship the latest version, numbered SN11 had been destroyed.

A high production rate solves many ills, Mr Musk first tweeted, apparently in reference to the fact that SpaceX manufactures a number of Starships so they can move on quickly from tests, even if they are destroyed.

At least the crater is in the right place! he then posted, seemingly confirming what appeared to be a large explosion, and suggesting that it had not caused critical damage as it did.

:: Follow live as SpaceX continues to determine cause of crash

In a more detailed tweet, he said that something significant had happened to bring about the problems but that it was not clear what that problem was.

Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didnt reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but, in theory, it wasnt needed, he wrote.

Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today.

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INDY/LIFE NewsletterBe inspired with the latest lifestyle trends every week

As Mr Musk referenced, SpaceX has built a host of different versions of the Starship, two of which have been destroyed in previous tests. The latest problem represents a step back from the previous version, given that it had successfully landed on the launchpad and then exploded after.

But upcoming versions of the Starship which will begin at SN15 already have a number of improvements built-in that could stop similar explosions happening in the future.

SN15 rolls to launch pad in a few days, Mr Musk wrote in another tweet. It has hundreds of design improvements across structures, avionics/software & engine.

Hopefully, one of those improvements covers this problem. If not, then retrofit will add a few more days.

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SpaceX launch: Elon Musk confirms Starship SN11 exploded and jokes about crater - The Independent

A low-cost battery touted by Elon Musk is disrupting the electric-vehicle business in China, grabbing nearly half of the market and spurring the rise of more affordable EVs.

The battery, known as lithium ferrophosphate, or LFP, has low risk of catching fire and costs less to make because it uses iron in place of scarce cobalt and nickel. But it generally offers fewer miles on a single charge and has a tendency to fizzle in cold weather, reasons why it isnt widely used in the U.S. or Europe.

In China last year, makers of the iron batteries supplied 30.8 gigawatt-hours of energy capacity for vehicles including EVs and gas-electric hybrids, accounting for 47% of the market, according to the government-backed China Automotive Battery Research Institute. That percentage was up from a little more than a quarter the previous year and reflected the arrival of low-cost mass-market EVs using the batteries.

China leads on the production scale, quality and cost of the current generation of LFP batteries, said Chao-Yang Wang, a professor and battery expert at Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Musk, the Tesla Inc. chief, has noticed. Tesla uses LFP batteries in one version of its China-made Model 3 sedans but not in Model 3s made in the U.S. Mr. Musk tweeted in late February that he wanted to use cheaper materials in the cathode, the side of a battery that absorbs electrons when it is generating power.

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Elon Musk Likes This EV Battery and It Costs Lessbut the U.S. Isnt Sold on It - The Wall Street Journal

SpaceX has revealed a new design for the Dragon capsule that includes a glass pod at the top of the craft that astronauts can sit in.

Tweeted by the official SpaceX account with the caption A new view for crew, the Dragon capsule will carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk retweeted the picture, saying that it was probably most in space you could possibly feel by being in a glass dome.

Having completed a successful trip to the space station in 2019, the Dragon capsule is part of Nasas plan to move travel between Earth and the orbiting craft from government organisations or foreign rockets to private companies.

Nasa astronauts previously had to use Russian rockets after space shuttle missions were retired in 2011, but the use of crafts from SpaceX and Boeing presents new opportunities for the space agency.

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The Dragon capsule is capable of carrying up to seven passengers at one time, via 16 Draco thrusters used to power and orient the craft during flight. Each thruster is capable of generating 90 pounds of force as it manoeuvres, adjusts its orbit, and controls the capsules altitude.

The new design of the Dragon capsule is not the only development SpaceX has made today: the SN11 starship, which launched from Boca Chica, Texas, crashed and exploded.

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The failed landing came after previous launch attempts on Friday and Monday were delayed due to technical issues and an absent FAA inspector, respectively.

Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didnt reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but, in theory, it wasnt needed, he wrote on Twitter.

Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today.

Link:

Elon Musk reveals new design for Dragon capsule that will let astronauts stick their head out into space - The Independent

The initial kit to link Kerry's remote Black Valley to Elon Musk's Starlink internet has arrived in the Kingdom and is to be installed within days.

The pilot project in the valley is being conducted by the Department of Rural and Community Development, under license by the Commission for Communications Regulation, more commonly known as ComReg.

Shrouded in secrecy, the Starlink company has been liaising directly with Kerry County Council since late 2020 to trial the technology.

The size of a small satellite dish, the kit that has made its way to Kerry includes a long cable and an indoor box said to be "the size of a lump of turf".

It will need a sheltered location, according to the councils digital officer.

Community groups in the valley have been co-operating eagerly, and a location where the device could serve a number of single houses would be selected this week, Brian Looney confirmed.

The only requirement is to see the sky, he said of the location for the dish.

Simple to use, he said that he had already run a test on it.

Communications blackspot

The satellite beta pilot was among a suite of solutions being looked at to solve the communications problems of the valley, Mr Looney said.

While it would speed up internet, companies such as Eir would also be trying to resolve the valleys long-term landline and poor mobile problems, he added.

Mayor of Kerry and Kenmare area councillor Patrick OConnor-Scarteen has welcomed the multi-span approach.

Cumeendiff lake in The Black Valley, Killarney County Kerry Ireland. Picture: Don MacMonagle

Given the valley was the last area to get telephone or electricity, he said he did not want it to be left trailing again.

There was a time when running water was the essential issue. Now it is access to the internet which is necessary now for most Government services, Mr OConnor-Scarteen said.

Light pollution

Mr Musk, founder of SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla, is deploying a chain of satellites into space to provide cheap and fast broadband connection for remote rural locations across the world.

However, the impact of the low-hanging satellites on Kerrys international dark sky reserve, the only gold reserve in the Northern Hemisphere has been raised in the Dil by Fine Gael TD, Eoghan Murphy.

The status was awarded to south Kerry in 2014 because of the pristine view of the constellations in the Kells to Skelligs area.

Low light bulbs have been put on the street lights in Cahersiveen, and the amount of light emanating from a single house is assessed in planning applications by the local council, lest they impact on the night sky.

Environment minister, Eamon Ryan, told the South Dublin TD there is currently no legislation in Ireland dealing specifically with environmental light pollution.

The decision to proceed with the pilot project was a matter for Kerry County Council and his department had no role in the matter, Mr Ryan said.

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Elon Musk's Starlink kit arrives in Kerry ahead of broadband plan - Irish Examiner