Pod Meets Tube, and Hyperloop Whooshes Closer Than Ever

(wailing)

[Man] At long last, the Hyperloop has arrived.

Well, kind of.

(wailing)

Hyperloop One has successfully tested

the pod that will someday carry people and cargo

up to practically super-sonic speeds

through a near-vacuum tube.

The company is the biggest player in the race

to realize Elon Musk's dream

of tube-based transportation,

and this is a big box to check.

This past weekend, Hyperloop One's engineers

loaded the aluminum and carbon fiber pod,

28 feet long, shaped like a bus with the beak of an eagle

into the tube at their Nevada test track.

Using magnetic levitation to hover above its track,

and moving through a tube with nearly

all the air sucked out,

the pod accelerated to 192 miles per hour

in just under 1,000 feet.

Ready for test.

[Man] The electric propulsion system

applied the equivalent of more than

3,000 horsepower to the pod

which then braked to a calm stop.

So we're running the pod faster and faster

each day, we're going longer and longer distances,

and we're getting closer to deploying it

throughout the world.

[Man] This is just a proof of concept, of course,

and there's plenty left to do

before you or anybody else can climb aboard.

Try building a full-on system with things like stations,

wrangling down the cost of infrastructure,

or negotiating with all of the public agencies

needed to put this newfangled system into practice.

Details, details.

That slightly creepy wail you hear?

That's the future.

And it's on its way.

(electronic music) (wailing)