When this year ends, The dream that gave life to Hyperloop One is also ending, the company that has been trying since 2013 to move from paper to reality, with a new transportation concept created by Elon Musk. a The story ends 10 years after it began and after $450 million To raise the first hundred. The figure shows that it was not the lack of investment that destroyed the dream; Technical difficulty in transforming an idea that was on paper capable of achieving success on the ground.
Over the years, numerous investors have donated millions to create a transportation system that Hyperloop describes as “A.” A new standard for travel in the 21st century“, able to connect distant cities in minutes.
Hey The Hyperloop concept includes a system of tubes that allows for high-speed travel, with low level of energy consumption. Inside the tubes will circulate Capsules can travel at speeds of more than 1,200 kilometers per hourThis is thanks to the magnetic propulsion technology used, or maglev (short for “magnetic levitation”).
a The pandemic has delayed the company's plans. The scandals involving two of the founders were not helpful either – one left the company in 2017, after an operation in which he was accused of sabotage, and another was removed from his position on charges of sexual assault. Ten years later It's time to turn off the investor tapsWith no possibility of opening it again.
Bloomberg reveals that the company will close its doors at the end of the year. It is selling assets, closing offices, and laying off employees, and closing its accounts in 2023. All intellectual property rights developed in the meantime pass into the hands of the main shareholder, DP Word, a logistics company in Dubai.
During these years, Hyperloop has only conducted one human testOn the track he built in the Nevada desert. The trip brought together a co-founder and an employee of the company and took place in an hour A speed much lower than that which it was claimed the technology would allow: 173 km/h was reached. This happened in 2020, when initial forecasts from the company's engineers predicted that by that year, Hyperloops would already be present in different parts of the world.
This year, millionaire Richard Branson's Virgin was still the company's majority shareholder, however, the public mood appears to have remained the same. The company filmed a video explaining everything the technology can do for the world and how it will do it.
The future of hyperloop is explained by Virgin
Virgin has actually mentioned this After several successful tests of the system, the focus was on developing a commercial service whose engines would be ten times more efficient of current maglev trains. Unlike trains, Hyperloop pods will not be interconnected. Thus, it is emphasized that different capsules of the same system can have different destinations. Along the way, the project changed its strategy and left aside the intention to carry passengers, instead of the desire to transport goods. It was not enough to keep the light at the end of the tunnel.
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