Has anyone considered what to do with all the heat generated by these pods?
They're essentially running inside an elongated thermos bottle while generating heat from any number of sources.
Bearings in electric motors and such are typically supplied with a cooling fan. Operating in a vacuum is going to create local hot spots as well as a more generalised increase in temperature that will be difficult to dissipate.
With maglev in a vacuum there's no conductive path for excess heat, it can't be shed to the nonexistent atmosphere in the tube, and radiation is simply not efficient at the required deltas.
Elon's original design called for a steam containment vessel that was to be removed and replaced at each stop, but I think (hope) that they've ditched that approach.
I hate being one that keeps raising doubts about this technology, but questions keep popping into my mind.
Terry