Now that the technology seems to be functional, the company has to deal with another big challenge, the government.
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Hyperloop One, racing to build a transportation platform that propels high-speed pods down pneumatic tubes, completed a test of its propulsion technology this morning in North Las Vegas.
They energized an electromagnetic power system and sent a dummy sled down the tracks at up to 300 miles per hour… the sled then crashed into a pile of sand because they haven’t yet developed brakes.
Executives with the Los Angeles-based company say the system could whisk people the 560 kilometres from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes.
Not just this, the company said that it is also changing its name to Hyperloop One representing its “singular leadership and incredible progress” in developing the world’s first full-scale Hyperloop system.
“Hyperloop One has built a powerful global ecosystem of companies that are definitive experts in their fields and now come together to unlock the true impact of Hyperloop”, said Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One.
The Hyperloop as described in the original whitepaper is not a fully fleshed-out idea.
Lloyd said Hyperloop One had already raised $80 million (R1.2 billion) from backers including clean technology venture capitalist Khosla Ventures, GE Ventures and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, the French state-owned railway company. “Certainly the infrastructure, the financing can be in place and where the regulators can innovate as fast as we are doing on the tech”.
Moreover, On Tuesday, Hyperloop One announced new funding and new partners in transportation and engineering, including AECOM, Amberg Group, Arup, Bjarke Ingels Group, Deutsche Bahn, KPMG, and Systra, per a report by Forbes.
It’s still early days but if all goes to plan Hyperloop One hopes to have an operational system around the end of the decade.
Brogan Bambrogan, a former engineer with Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, said he was happy with the results of the test on Wednesday.
While there are still many questions over whether the Hyperloop can be realized at a feasible cost, Hyperloop One has now developed a partnership network that will assist answering those questions.
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Hyperloop hopes to start moving cargo by 2019 and people by 2021 and could be able to move people and cargo at the speed of sound.
