Transport of the Future

The dream of traveling around through pneumatic tubes has been around for decades. There are lots of advantages to such a system including low power consumption, immunity to weather conditions, and the ability to run collision-free at very high speeds. Analysis of a preliminary proposed route from Los Angeles to San Francisco calculated the travel time to be as little as 35 minutes at an average speed of 600 miles per hour.

But the futuristic idea never really got off the ground until 2012 when Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX) introduced a concept dubbed Hyperloop and later announced a competition to outsource the pod design. Less than five years later, in January of this year, the concept took a giant step toward becoming a reality as Hyperloop One demonstrated its technology on a test track. And now the race is on…

Recently, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) announced plans to begin building a full-size hyperloop passenger capsule in France. Designed to seat between 28 and 40 passengers, the pod will be about 100 feet in length and 9 feet in diameter and weigh about 20 tons. Another startup company called Arrivo has reportedly started seeking funding for test sites in the United States.

A system connecting Abu Dhabi and Dubai appears to be a popular choice for the first commercial installation, although several other sites are being proposed.