Although it once sounded like a pipe dream, plans for Elon Musk's new transportation system, the Hyperloop, have begun, and we'll see the first test track for the transport sometime next year.
Of course, though, the one question on everyone's mind is this: what will it cost to take a ride on this venture that will cost billions of dollars to build?
The answer to that is a lot simpler than most might expect. It seems that it might be completely free to ride the Hyperloop in the future once the system is ready for passengers.
That's right: we said free. Which is a huge difference between what some pricing analysts estimated (they assumed that tickets would run about double that of what airlines charge for flights). In an interview with Wired, Dirk Ahlborn, the CEO of the company behind the Hyperloop, stated that tickets on the transportation system "might be free to the passenger."
"We want to make it something you use every single day many times," says Ahlborn. "I really, strongly believe that if we create a hyperloop network and it's free - in the off-peak times at least, in peak times we would charge a little bit - but we make money in other ways, that will really change how people live."
So how else could the project make money? Well, the Hyperloop runs completely on renewable energy, and in fact, will produce extra energy that the company can sell to businesses and utilities companies.
The Hyperloop will carry passengers from point A to point B faster than any other ground-based transportation system at around 800 miles per hour. Robots meet passengers at the station to take their luggage before they enter into a capsule that travels along a tube stacked on top of another tube (each going in opposite directions). The plan is for capsules to load every 30 seconds.
The first Hyperloop test track begins construction soon and will cover five miles in California. The test track capsules will only reach about 200 miles per hour, but for anyone who has been on an Amtrak train, that's still super fast. If successful, we'll see more Hyperloop covering California, perhaps from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but the company eventually plans on covering most of the United States in Hyperloop track.
Considering the U.S. is so far behind other countries in high-speed rail transportation, the Hyperloop is a much-needed addition to a country that still depends solely on driving and airplanes for travel. Of course, that means that there might be some initial pushback from the oil and airline industries, but most would argue that this is something the U.S., and the world, desperately needs.
[Photo Credit: JumpStartFund]
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