Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday July 24 2019, @02:12AM   Printer-friendly

Elon Musk's vision for a futuristic form of transport has achieved a new milestone after a Hyperloop test pod hit a new top speed of 288mph (463kph) before it exploded.

At the 2019 edition of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, student teams launch their prototype pods through a 1.2 km vacuum tube beside the SpaceX headquarters in California.

Unfortunately for the winning team, their pod exploded shortly after reaching the top speed.

"We are happy to announce that we have reached a top speed of 463 km/h today," the team announced on Twitter.

"Although we lost some parts on the way, we were able to successful [sic] finish our run and are proud to be the winners of the 2019 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition."

[...] After announcing the new speed record on Twitter, Mr Musk revealed that the 2020 edition of the Hyperloop competition will take place in a 10km vacuum tunnel "with a curve".

A longer test track should presumably lead to much faster speeds, while the curve will mean teams will have to prepare a pod that can cope with real-world routes.

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/elon-musk-hyperloop-top-speed-record-virgin-hyperlooptt-a9015381.html


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Nuke on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:42AM (5 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:42AM (#870605)

    But Hyperloop is a "pod racing through a vacuum tunnel". The main reason for the existence of this idea is as a weapon against the building of conventional high speed rail schemes in the USA. As in "Don't build that HS rail link, wait and build a Hyperloop instead". So the HS rail link is cancelled and of course in time Hyperloop will never be built either, which was exactly the plan.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=3, Total=4
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by HiThere on Wednesday July 24 2019, @03:50PM (4 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 24 2019, @03:50PM (#870721) Journal

    The thing is, conventional high speed rail systems in the US *NEED* to be canceled. So good. I'm not a real fan of cars, but without large public transit ridership, high speed rail will just be a place to dump money. They need to improve passenger rail in an incremental fashion...which they have proven themselves unwilling to do.

    Of course, the problem that passenger rail faces, outside of opposition from the auto lobbies, is that the rail lines are owned by companies that make their money off of freight, so passenger traffic (run by a separate organization) isn't prioritized. Lines are maintained that help freight get through on time and without problems. Passenger trains have to wait for the freight to go through. So they take longer than is reasonable. And the company that runs the passenger trains doesn't really seem to care about passenger comfort. After a long trip, my wife ended up in the hospital with knee problems traceable to that trip. I had already noticed in the early 1960's that passenger service had degraded since the early 1950's.

    Note that this isn't something that needs a high tech solution. It needs the companies that run the lines to care about quality of service.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday July 24 2019, @04:02PM (1 child)

      by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Wednesday July 24 2019, @04:02PM (#870727) Journal

      Curious as to whether you have an idea as to the relative profitability of freight versus passengers.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Wednesday July 24 2019, @05:59PM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 24 2019, @05:59PM (#870785) Journal

        Freight is a lot more profitable, but passengers was the argument that the companies used to get grants of land to run their tracks. If they'd given back the tracks at the same time they gave the passenger lines to the govt. I'd have a lot fewer objections.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday July 24 2019, @06:57PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday July 24 2019, @06:57PM (#870811)

      They need to improve passenger rail in an incremental fashion ....... the problem that passenger rail faces, outside of opposition from the auto lobbies, is that the rail lines are owned by companies that make their money off of freight, so passenger traffic (run by a separate organization) isn't prioritized

      The fact that the existing lines are owned by freight companies, and that therefore the passenger trains get low proiority, is an excellent reason to build separate high speed passenger lines. Otherwise, how could the present situation be improved "incrementally"?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:40PM (#870862)

      Not just the auto industry. The airline industry opposes it as well.