Elon Musk's Dream was Put to the Test Today Startup company Hyperloop One put Musk's idea of propelling commuters at the speed of sound into motion.
By Dan Bova
UPDATE: The following slo-mo video was posted of the Hyperloop One's test drive. We will update the story as results of the test are released.
A video posted by Roberto Baldwin (@strngwys) on May 11, 2016 at 11:15am PDT
In 2013, Elon Musk let the world know he had an idea: let's transport people in tubes at 760 miles an hour. (For the non-scientists out there, that's just shy of the speed of sound.) His theory was that a combination of vacuum tubes and magnets would create an environment of minimal air resistance and friction, allowing people-moving pods to reach such crazy speeds. If achieved, this technology could turn a six-hour journey from L.A. to San Francisco into a 30-minute commute.
Today in the desert outside of Las Vegas, startup company Hyperloop One Inc. is taking the first step toward making Musk's idea a reality. The company will launch a pod in a full-scale section of tube, hoping for it to reach 300 mph.
Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd told Gizmodo, "We've tested levitation technologies, we've tested the aerodynamics in those low-pressure environments, we've tested the tube ... So we've done testing of all the systems but only can demonstrate this if we build it at full-scale."
Check back here to see how the test goes. And if the high-speed barf bags are fully functioning.
