And company officials hinted that they may look to another significant anniversary for their next big event this year.
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According to the BBC, Hyperloop One’s executives hope it could form mass transit systems in only five years, with ambitions of travelling from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes by 2021.
By placing magnets on the hyperloop transportation pods and having them react – and cause lift – with coils in the transportation pods, one can avoid the costly approach now used by maglev trains, which require pricey tracks laced with copper coils. The company now reaches more than 150 employees split between its Los Angeles headquarters and the test facility in North Las Vegas.
“The goal of this test isn’t just to move this sled”, he said. The sled accelerated at 2 g-force, maxing out at roughly half of Hyperloop’s eventual top speed.
The crowd cheered, and the interviews began.
In 2014, Musk, of Tesla fame, outlined a potentially revolutionary transportation system called the Hyperloop, an above-ground, low-pressure tube with smallish pods inside that are propelled by impeller engines and supported by either air or magnets.
The test is meant to signal the start of work on an actual Hyperloop transportation system, which was proposed by Musk in 2013.
That’s when BamBrogan and and Pishevar connected. Well, yes. But the Hyperloop is built on a dream.
But Hyperloop One’s announcements and successful demonstration are serious progress. Hyperloop was somewhat overshadowed in their work because they arrived just before Faraday Future came on the scene.
Think back to last December when lawmakers were in a special session in Carson City to bring electric auto manufacturer Faraday Future to Apex. Musk decided not to pursue this business venture, which he called Hyperloop, but his whitepaper spawned two rival Hyperloop companies and an worldwide student engineer competition.
Although the original test should be done in a tube, Hyperloop has done the testing on a single center track.
Hyperloop One’s $80 million Series B financing round was raised from more than 70 investors, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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“With hyperloop we are not only designing a futuristic station or a very fast train, we are dealing with an entirely novel technology with the potential to completely transform how our existing cities will grow and evolve, and how new cities will be conceived and constructed”, said Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd. The $100 million in funding will help, but Musk has said the project will cost $6 billion, and some experts think the final price tag will be far more.
