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According to early reports the Hyperloop's initial tests (open air tests) were a success at their test track in North Las Vegas. Image.
It didn't go far but it did work. A metal sled accelerated from zero to 116 mph in 1.1 seconds, or about 2.4 Gs of force. It traveled little more than 100 meters, then stopped, kicking up a cloud of sand in the process.
The Verge has a couple articles Here, before the test and test pictures here.
Pencilled in for Q4 2016, however, is what the company is describing as its "Kitty Hawk" moment - a reference to the Wright Brother's first flight - where it plans to run a full-scale test track. Expected to be more than two miles of low-pressure tube, the pod inside should run at over 700 mph if all goes as planned.
Even if the system scales as Hyperloop One expects it to, human passengers may not be welcome, at least initially. The company is looking to cargo transportation as the most likely use for a commercial Hyperloop system - presumably because boxes and crates are less fragile than families - with interest already from a number of countries in a potential logistics system that would run through tubes and underground tunnels.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nuke on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:48AM
None of the individual components of the Hyperloop are new except the vehicle travelling in a (partial) vacuum tube to reduce air resistance (but this test was open air anyway). Magnetic propulsion, air cushions - old hat.
Anyway, this is not going to "transform transportation". I can see a single line being built between two cities, LA and SF probably, or LA to Las Vegas because of the novelty entertainment factor, and that will be it. It's capacity will be low; it will be a market niche like Concorde was. This is a billionaire playing with a dream he had, one that any of us might have but would never have the means to try it in reality. It is not particularly clever in engineering terms as a concept.
You can see Musk already backing off from the idea of human passengers. His company is beginning to realise the massive regulatory hoops and safety expense involved in public transport. We keep hearing nonsense that the Hyperloop will be cheaper than a conventional railway - but it is those regulatory and safety issues that make railways so expensive, and those same issues (and more) will appy to Hyperloop too.
But it won't be much good for freight either; freight does not need to be moved at extreme speed, and for economy freight needs a big loading gauge (ie the cross sectional area of the way, allowing double-stacking of containers for example). A large loading gauge the Hyperloop does not have, and making that tube bigger is going to make it disproportionatly more expensive.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 12 2016, @10:00AM
Here and now, future doesn't exist yet, eh?
What about a mature technology, tested on/with humans (and paid by greedy investors hunting unicorns, which recover their money from other more greedy/gullible ones), which enables SpaceX to build a mix of smaller StarTram [wikipedia.org] and single stage rocket at the end?
Some years ago, nobody thought of recovering the booster to reduce launching cost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by frojack on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:05PM
Greedy Investors!
Those bastages! How dare those 1%-ers spend their ill gotten fortune polluting our pure ideas!!!
We must put an end to this project right away. As well as driverless cars, electric vehicles, solor power, wind farms, and every other new thing. Why: because greedy investors.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @10:30AM
None of the individual components of the Hyperloop are new except
adequate, cheap computing power to synchronize operations at near Mach 1. Ooops!
Anyway, this is not going to "transform transportation".
Except for the fact you can get produce picked in California the very same day in New York. All at a cheaper cost (amortized) than train.
I wonder what something like Wal-mart, which is a logistical powerhouse, could do with shipping anywhere that day? What would it do to inventory costs?
freight does not need to be moved at extreme speed
Which is why FedEx next day air is hemorrhaging money. Which is why automotive parts suppliers source from many different vendors in case of hiccups. Which is why the local sushi place gets overnight fresh fish daily.
What you meant to say is you don't require extreme speed.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday May 12 2016, @03:20PM
So you say the credit for the Hyperloop should go to Intel?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:32PM
I'm saying someone dense enough to compare the technology from the 60s to today without acknowledging the thing he's typing on is probably free from the ravages of intelligence or is a rogue chatbot that escaped a BBS and still thinks 640k is good enough.