Daryl Oster: Evacuated Tube Transport to Bring Space Travel on Earth

Daryl Oster is an inventor and engineer who wants to bring space travel to Earth. The idea is called ET3 – Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies. Oster is the CEO of ET3 and his company “uses an open consortium business model to share information resulting in co-operative benefits.” The goal is nothing less but building a radically new high-speed global network of transportation that will be cheap to use and maintain; safe not only for passengers but also for the environment; accessible to and affordable for everyone on Earth; quiet and fast (with speeds eventually reaching 4,000 mph). During my conversation with Daryl Oster we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: what is ET3 and how did it come to be; how, by removing friction, evacuated tube transport will bring space travel to Earth; why automating ET3 is easier than automating robot cars; the optimum degree of vacuum required to achieve highest efficiency of transportation; the costs associated with the R&D and building the network; ensuring safety and dealing with malfunctions; why evacuated tube transport is cheaper and better than the alternatives; Daryl’s unique business model; current state of development and projects both in the USA and abroad; why the major obstacles are political and legal and not technological; the biggest misconceptions about ET3; why innovators are the ones with knife wounds on their backs; why the greatest benefits of the project are social; the technological singularity…