The ultimate ground transportation

Virgin Hyperloop and several other companies are working on hyperloop transportation technology that will zip vehicles between cities inside vacuum tubes at speeds of up to 700 miles per hour.

The plan is to create hyperloop systems that “carry more people than a subway, at airline speeds, and with zero direct emissions,” says Virgin Hyperloop. And this week the company did a successful test run with real people inside a hyperloop pod.

The test took place at Virgin Hyperloop’s 500-meter DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s where the company has been running hundreds of tests with unoccupied pods.

For this test, the pod was traveling at 48 meters per second, which is the equivalent of about 107 miles per hour.

The XP-2 test vehicle is a 2-seater. But Virgin envisions hyperloop vehicles that will seat up to 28 passengers and travel between cities hundreds of miles apart in just minutes.

“Hyperloop is about so much more than the technology. It’s about what it enables – the trips you’d be able to take from Paris to Berlin, Lisbon to Madrid, or Warsaw to Prague,” said Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience for Virgin Hyperloop, and one of the testers.

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