not sure what that has to do with elon musk, other than to try and put together a "nuclear" attack on his character, going after the moral foundation of his wealth in addition to the hyperloop idea. it's like the article is a communist critique wrapped in a technical evaluation.
away from the radical and bitter aspects of this critique, i appreciate the technical comments in here. i think it is vital to have a proper, public technical evaluation of the hyperloop, and he undermines his argument with the personal and philosophical. i would love to see a response to this critique from the hyperloop side.
i would agree that musk, having lobbed this hand grenade into public discourse, should follow-through on his idea to some extent - build a test bed and prove it can be done on a small scale. in my limited experience, if something is a really good idea, you try and pursue it for yourself, rather than hoping someone else will steal it from you.
Thus we get Hyperloop, a loopy intercity rail transit idea proposed by Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk, an entrepreneur who hopes to make a living some day building cars.
... was just an immature and catty way to begin a (what he hoped would be) substantive attack on the Hyperloop.
The article finds some questionable issues in the initial proposal, but its unfortunate that Levy writes as though Musk is a jackass for even putting the idea out there.