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[MJPIA]

Old threads on this.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1223472&highlight=straddling+bus
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1322591&highlight=china+bus

Its been assumed to be a scam for a long time now but police are finally investigating it and details are emerging.
https://qz.com/1020128/its-official...ating-traffic-straddling-bus-is-a-total-scam/

In theory, the Transit Elevated Bus, or TEB, is an electrically powered, 300-passenger vehicle that moves atop tracks straddling the highway while allowing road traffic to flow below. Billed as a potential answer to China’s notorious traffic congestion and air pollution, the TEB conducted its first road test run last August in the northeastern port city of Qinghuangdao, but has since mostly sat idly as a giant roadblock. Last week, the local authority announced it would remove the 300-meter tracks the bus runs on by the end of this month.
On Sunday (July 2), police in Beijing announced that it had started an investigation into the company behind the TEB for alleged illegal fundraising. More than 30 people associated with Huaying Kailai, an online financing platform that has been selling an investment product to raise money from individual investors to develop the bus, have been held, said Beijing’s Dongcheng district police bureau in a statement (link in Chinese) on microblogging site Weibo. The statement added that the police is working to recover funds from the firm, and advised TEB investors to report their complaints to local police stations. Huaying Kailai couldn’t be reached for comment. The number listed on its website is invalid and a message to the email provided bounced back.

Bai Zhiming, who runs Huaying Kailai and is also chief executive of TEB Technology Development, a Beijing-based company that purchased the patent for the elevated bus, was among those detained, according to the police statement. Bai bills himself as “the father of the TEB” on Weibo. Days after the Qinghuangdao government announced the TEB track’s demolition, Bai told Chinese media that the bus would be relocated to another Chinese city.
Transportation experts have questioned the TEB for its impracticality and the safety risks it brings to regular traffic. Previously state media had also raised concerns (paywall) over the bus’s investment offering, which was sold as a private fund with a starting price of $150,000, and promised an annualized return of 12%.

At least 72 individual investors have filed lawsuits against Bai and Huaying Kailai for private lending disputes, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily (link in Chinese), which searched China’s online verdict database. Citing a police document given by an investor, the paper also reported that Huaying Kailai and its subsidiaries had raised 9.1 billion yuan (around $1.3 billion) by October of 2016. Dongcheng police didn’t reply to Quartz’s queries on the Huaying Kailai investigation on Weibo.

Amid a slowing economy and limited investment options, China’s retail investors are being burned time and again through investments in shadowy wealth management products, especially in the booming but largely unregulated online peer-to-peer lending sector.

1.3 Billion USD raked in for a bus that moved a couple times on a 300 meter track and never moved again.

Lock if old.

 

[KSweeley]

$1.3 billion USD spent on a scam?!!? Damn!!!!!!!!!

 

[sixteen-bit]

there was something shady af about this from the jump

 

[norm9]

Seems smart to stop once they realized it wasn't what they thought they were getting.

 

[BGBW]

What a rather Mighty looking bus.

 

[Mechanized]

Did they not get this episode of The Simpsons in China?!

 

[Sony]

I've read reports about this a year ago. Doesn't make it any less rediculous though.

 

[3rdman]

$1.3 billion USD spent on a scam?!!? Damn!!!!!!!!!

Peanuts...
https://www.fastcompany.com/3039328/church-giving-tops-50-billion-a-year-in-us-and-its-future-is-not-a-collection-plate

hehehehe

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Bye Zhiming

 

[KSweeley]

Peanuts...
[URL="https://www.*******************/article/american.churches.receive.record.114.9.b.donations.in.2014.report/57240.htm"]https://www.*******************/article/american.churches.receive.record.114.9.b.donations.in.2014.report/57240.htm[/URL]

hehehehe

What are you trying to post? Your link got censored by GAF.

 

[warthog]

It was a shitty idea, I don't understand why people got excited about it.

 

[LinkAndEpona]

Well that blows, that thing looked pretty cool.

 

[Ding II]

Why does everyone refer to this vehicle as a "bus"? It's clearly some sort of train/tram.

 

[Kinyou]

The prototype does look pretty expensive to me but who knows what's actually under that nice exterior.

Why does everyone refer to this vehicle as a "bus"? It's clearly some sort of train/tram.

It was meant to use a track, but I believe that was just there to guide it. The vehicle itself rested on normal wheels.

I guess it's a bit of both

 

[MThanded]

The idea seems so stupid.

No one should have invested.

 

[RinsFury]

This thing always seemed incredibly dangerous, even if it did work as advertised.

 

[HStallion]

If you needed more than a thirty second look at this thing to even think something other than scam or just outright bad idea you deserve to lose your money.

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

The prototype does look pretty expensive to me but who knows what's actually under that nice exterior.


It was meant to use a track, but I believe that was just there to guide it. The vehicle itself rested on normal wheels.

And those wheels were made of cardboard

 

[Ether_Snake]

They sure didn't spend much on whatever the fuck that part is, just slapped some every day air conditioning unit in there:

 

[Walter White Walker]

I hope at some point there was the Chinese equivalent of, "Let's just do it and be legends".

 

[Username1198]

They sure didn't spend much on whatever the fuck that part is, just slapped some every day air conditioning unit in there:

Rocket boosters, AC, or botw puzzle piece?

I'd like to know

 

[BlazinSkatinAxel]

Rocket boosters, AC, or botw puzzle piece?

I'd like to know

Blast Proccessing.

 

[godhandiscen]

I remember the announcement of this thing and how everybody was praising China for their technological advancements.

 

[.JayZii]

Why is there so little clearance underneath? Wasn't the whole point that things could go under it easily?

 

[rtcn63]

Rocket boosters, AC, or botw puzzle piece?

I'd like to know

Consumer RX Vega?

 

[IdreamofHIME]

 

[Ether_Snake]

Why is there so little clearance underneath? Wasn't the whole point that things could go under it easily?

I think no one asked this question until someone realize it was a scam, lol.

 

[CountAntonius]

Is there a chance the track could bend?

 

[Blablurn]

We all wanted to believe.

 

[hanspampel]

I was also personally scammed by a chinese company
JOYOU

This stuff sucks

 

[toneroni]

I hope at some point there was the Chinese equivalent of, "Let's just do it and be legends".

Comment is Fyre