Imagine traveling the world in a pod flying down a pneumatic tube at hundreds of miles an hour. Hyperloop One provides a look into the future of travel thanks to engineers like Josh Giegel, Hyperloop One’s engineering chief.
Entrepreneur, Elon Musk, originally introduced the concept of a giant vacuum tube transportation system (The Hyperloop) two and a half years ago. The basic idea was a partially evacuated tube with capsules floating inside on a layer of air, pulled along by a fan and getting their extra propulsion from electromagnets in the tube’s walls.
Originally Hyperloop was talked to be put from San Francisco to Los Angeles making the trip only 35 minutes with off ramps at each end loading and unloading pods with 28 seats every two minutes.
Hyperloop One is a company based out of Los Angeles, California that is working to create a high speed transit system. The startup has now successfully tested the full scale model of the Hyperloop system on the test track just outside of Nevada. The most recent tests show the train like car topping out at 192 mph falling short of the initial goal of 250 mph.
“This is integrating all of the pieces,” says Giegel, “It’s the first phase of a test program that will get us to a production unit.”
The startup announced their agreement with Dubai Roads and Transport Authority in early November of 2016 to evaluate using the Hyperloop between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As part of the announcement, Hyperloop revealed their concept for an even faster transport system that claims that it could travel roughly around 700 mph. If true, passengers could travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes, a normally 2 hour drive.
There are plans for additional Hyperloop Transportation systems in Slovakia and South Korea in the next few years, and Arrivo, launched by former Hyperloop One lead engineer, Brogan BamBrogan.