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Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by progfix on Monday November 18, 2019 @01:44AM (#21562389)
The difference is we are building tunnels for many decades and making them smaller, reusing the ground material are not ground breaking ideas.
Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by rusticpenn on Monday November 18, 2019 @01:59AM (#21562436)
The ground breaking part is not the tunnel but the vehicles. Its extremely dangerous to use ICE vehicles in long tunnels without complex ventilation schemes. Electric vehicles solve this issue.
Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by progfix on Monday November 18, 2019 @02:38AM (#21562579)
You need complex ventilation anyway. Imagine a fire breaks out.
Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by rusticpenn on Monday November 18, 2019 @03:45AM (#21562802)
True, however that requirements are more relaxed. The invention of electric train removed most of the problems with coal based (and other vehicles and helped in creation of subways).I think the movement to electric will create the same oppurtunity for cars.
Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by aguyfromnb on Monday November 18, 2019 @11:00AM (#21565329)
>The ground breaking part is not the tunnel but the vehicles.

Underground LRT (aka "a subway") are electric vehicles that travel in tunnels. In what sense is replacing a subway with an electric car that runs on rails "ground-breaking"?

Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by rusticpenn on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @04:09AM (#21571589)
The initial idea was to have tunnels for cars, however since most cars on roads are ICEs, the cars on rails was brought about as an alternative. In an ideal world with 100% electric vehicles, the complete transportation can be moved underground and the cities can appear as natural as possible.
Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by asjw on Monday November 18, 2019 @03:34AM (#21562766)
Electric cars have tires, that produce a lot of the dangerous micro plastic
Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by rusticpenn on Monday November 18, 2019 @03:43AM (#21562796)
Tires seem to be completly another beast. Apparently, most of the pollution from tires are usually stuck to the roads and are washed periodically with water and soap [1]. I am not sure how much tires contribute to air pollution.

https://nmbu.brage.unit.no/nmbu-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250...

Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by peller on Monday November 18, 2019 @04:35AM (#21562986)
Sounds like it's more so water pollution where tires are bad:

> Driving is not just an air pollution and climate change problem — turns out, it just might be the largest contributor of microplastics in California coastal waters. [...] Rainfall washes more than 7 trillion pieces of microplastics, much of it tire particles left behind on streets, into San Francisco Bay each year — an amount 300 times greater than what comes from microfibers washing off polyester clothes, microbeads from beauty products and the many other plastics washing down our sinks and sewers.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-10-02/califor...

Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by Tempest1981 on Monday November 18, 2019 @05:34AM (#21563223)
Interesting:

"Rubber is also considered plastic, both natural (isoprene) and synthetic (styrene butadiene)."

Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by jeltz on Monday November 18, 2019 @02:11AM (#21562477)
If the innovation is changes in the society why can't every other tunnel company just copy him and do it better?
Re:Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) by nexuist on Monday November 18, 2019 @02:38AM (#21562583)
If it was that easy there would only be one company in the world, and it would do everything.

The issue with competition, you see, is that someone has to lose, and it sure as hell isn't going to be the winner - until it is.