Elon Musk’s Dream of People Traveling in Tubes Is Alive!

By Dan Bova May 12, 2016

Startup company Hyperloop One began with a question asked by Elon Musk in 2012: Can people travel in supersonic vacuum tubes? Yesterday, it came back with an answer: yes.

In the Nevada desert, Hyperloop One successfully demonstrated rocketing a sled down a short section of track using magnetic levitation technology. The aluminum sled reached 120 mph in 1.5 seconds and hit 300 mph before in came to a halt in a sand berm, according to a report filed by Wired.

Related: The Heavy Metal Tribute to Elon Musk You’ve Been Waiting For

Rob Lloyd, the CEO of Hyperloop One, said of the test, “This was a major technology milestone.” The Hyperloop One engineers believe this is proof of concept that they can eventually build a pipeline that would propel pods at speeds of 750 mph (nearly the speed of sound). With speeds like that, travelers could make the usual six-hour trip from L.A. to San Francisco in just 30 minutes. That’s not nearly enough time for an in-tube movie, but we’re hoping they will at least pass out snacks.

Startup company Hyperloop One began with a question asked by Elon Musk in 2012: Can people travel in supersonic vacuum tubes? Yesterday, it came back with an answer: yes.

In the Nevada desert, Hyperloop One successfully demonstrated rocketing a sled down a short section of track using magnetic levitation technology. The aluminum sled reached 120 mph in 1.5 seconds and hit 300 mph before in came to a halt in a sand berm, according to a report filed by Wired.

Related: The Heavy Metal Tribute to Elon Musk You’ve Been Waiting For

Rob Lloyd, the CEO of Hyperloop One, said of the test, “This was a major technology milestone.” The Hyperloop One engineers believe this is proof of concept that they can eventually build a pipeline that would propel pods at speeds of 750 mph (nearly the speed of sound). With speeds like that, travelers could make the usual six-hour trip from L.A. to San Francisco in just 30 minutes. That’s not nearly enough time for an in-tube movie, but we’re hoping they will at least pass out snacks.

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Dan Bova

VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com
Entrepreneur Staff
Dan Bova is the VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com and host of the How Success Happens podcast. He previously worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maxim, and Spy magazine. His latest books for kids include This Day in History, Car and Driver's Trivia Zone, Road & Track Crew's Big & Fast Cars, The Big Little...

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