Gallery: Today in LOLOL: Hyperloop Pods That ‘Hyperjump’ Out of the Tube
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Hyperloop One’s pods won’t just flirt with the sound barrier inside near-vacuum tubes.
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To get a rider all the way to her destination, that pod will leave the tube—presumably, “hyperjump” means hopping off the levitation rig and onto road-going wheels—and start driving itself down city streets.
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“We don’t sell cars, boats, trains, or planes,” Josh Giegel, Hyperloop One’s engineering chief, said in a blog post. “We sell time.”
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BTW, the pod, which looks a toaster Justin Bieber wrapped in chrome, will seat between six and 100 people and feature translucent walls for looking outside.
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Of course, solving the last mile problem of its potential riders with autonomous cars would be a great move.
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But Hyperloop still hasn’t figured out the first mile: how to design, build, fund, permit, and prove that levitating pods can safely travel through tubes at hundreds of miles per hour.
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Meanwhile, Hyperloop One is in a vicious, funky legal battle with its erstwhile top engineer Brogan BamBrogan and three other former employees.
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And leaked documents revealed that just after raising $50 million, the company’s hoping to pull in another $250 million early in 2017.
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Oh, and nobody’s proven it’s possible to take the sound engineering principles behind Hyperloop and turn them into an actual transportation system.
