The hyperloop has a new face: Former Cisco President Rob Lloyd may not be a real-life Tony Stark like Elon Musk, but he says he’s going to turn the next-generation transportation idea into a reality.
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He said he expects the first Hyperloop test systems are still two or three years away, but he believes goods and people will be moved through high-speed tubes in about five years.
“Rob Lloyd is perfectly suited to lead this company given his incredible 20+ year track record of innovating and disrupting”, said Pishevar, HTT co-founder and board co-chair. The organization says it as of now has 50 full time workers in a 55,000 sq. ft area in downtown.
Given the vision’s sci-fi nature and technological challenges, turning the concept into a reality will be no small feat. Hyperloop Technologies is one of several companies pursuing implementing the technology, none of which are affiliated with SpaceX or Musk.
“Hyperloop will become a global network of connected technologies except we will be moving atoms, not bits, and will do so faster, cheaper, safer and greener”, he wrote.
“Hyperloop is the fifth mode of transport and will be the most efficient transportation network ever seen”.
Forbes reports that Hyperloop cofounder Shervin Pishevar, an acquaintance of Lloyd, introduced him to the company, of which the former Cisco executive knew little about.
The company is now developing the tube design and manufacturing process, as well as the technology that will levitate the pod in a manner similar to an air hockey puck, Lloyd said. Hyperloop is venture backed by Formation 8, Sherpa Ventures, Zhen Capital, Caspian VC, David O. Sacks, and others.
“It’s rare as an engineer to have the chance to solve really big problems – and while building the hyperloop is a massive undertaking, it is now an engineering certainty”. JumpStartFund is backing a confusingly similar-sounding company named Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.
To call Rob Lloyd a Cisco veteran is to risk understatement. To that end, Lloyd will be tasked with creating and leveraging global relationships and partnerships as Hyperloop Technologies Inc. prepares to have its Test Track operational in late 2016 / early 2017, and develop the systems and a family of products that will be ready, proven and commercially viable by 2020. “We look forward to 2016 being our Kitty Hawk moment”.
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Hyperloop also said it is raising about $80 million in new funding to help fulfill those promises. Even though the company is based in Los Angeles, California, it’s not likely that the first project will be in the company’s home state.
