If you’ve never heard of Hyperloop, it’s a high-speed transport system that could carry people across vast distances in a fraction of the time it currently takes.
To give you an idea of how fast we’re talking, Hyperloop would in theory get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles in around 30 minutes — a journey that typically takes 6 hours by car — at a speed of 600-700mph.
It was introduced by Elon Musk — the famous entrepreneur who founded PayPal and is now spearheading electric car manufacturer Tesla — and the concept is now being tackled by a company called Hyperloop One.
In the video below, you’ll see an open air propulsion test in which the sled reached 116 mph in 1.1 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e-Po9C8Kj8
The entire Hyperloop concept is still very much under development, and although Hyperloop One sealed $80m of funding, there are still no guarantees that the technology will make it into mainstream transport. Based on that video however, things look promising.
You can also watch this animation demonstrating how the ‘pod’ will actually be propelled through the Hyperloop tube.
What do you think?
Although I don’t see Hyperloop coming into effect anytime soon, it’s exciting to see the progress already and I really do think it’s got the potential to change the way we travel in the long-term.
What do you think about the Hyperloop concept and initial tests though? Let me know in the comments!
