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from the just-wait-until-Apple-supplies-an-iPod dept.
We had submissions from two Soylentils on a recent high-speed demonstration by Hyperloop One.
Hyperloop One's Passenger Pod Takes its First Ride
Just weeks after Hyperloop One demonstrated a working, albeit slow, version of its levitating sled, the company has made another leap forward. This time around, the startup has successfully tested its XP-1 passenger pod, reaching speeds of up to 192 mph and levitating off the track as it accelerated.
XP-1 traveled for just over 300 meters before the brakes kicked in and it rolled to a gradual stop, hitting a top speed of 192 mph. That speed puts Hyperloop One's system a little bit ahead of Category 1 high-speed rail, which has a maximum running speed of 155mph, although it's not yet faster than Japan's bullet train.
Then again, Hyperloop One's plan is to push its pods at speeds closer to 750 mph, but that's clearly going to be tough to test in a tube that's just 500 meters long. But the milestones, slow and steady, are being met, and it's clearly a demonstration of the company's strength that it is developing its prototypes for real.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/02/hyperloop-one-first-pod-xp1-test/
Hyperloop One Claims Successful 192mph Test
For the number nuts, such as himself, your humble editor (FP), in a freshly woken daze - and assuming 300 m of acceleration, 50 m of gliding, and 150 m of deceleration - has calculated that the acceleration was at 2.5G, and the deceleration was at 5.0G, which doesn't make breakfast seem such a good idea.
[NB: That contains a factor of 2 error, as pointed out below by a careful reader, my bad -- FP.]
Today Hyperloop One claimed that its demo pod reached 192mph (310 kph) on the 500m (1/3 mile) test track that the startup built outside of Las Vegas. Hyperloop One showed off that demo pod last month—it's basically an 8.7m (28.5 ft) carbon-fiber shell on a magnetically levitating chassis.
This test run follows on a "Phase 1" test that sent a bare-bones sled down the test track at 70mph. At the time, Hyperloop One had said Phase 2 would involve getting to 250mph, but in a recent press release, the startup said that the 192mph test run this month satisfied Phase 2 development goals. Ars has reached out to Hyperloop One for clarification, and we'll update when we receive a response.
Although no media were present, Hyperloop One claims that in this most recent test, its large pod "accelerated for 300 meters and glided above the track using magnetic levitation before braking and coming to a gradual stop."
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @08:01PM (1 child)
LA could barely manage a functional street car system
First, LA is Louisiana.
Los Angeles (abbreviated L.A.) had an electric Red Car system built by Henry Huntington.
He intended it to get folks to the places where he had built houses and was selling them.
For decades, it worked just fine, getting folks as far as San Berdoo.
There was also a Yellow Car system.
After buying that up and destroying it, General Motors, Firestone, Standard Oil, et al. were convicted by a jury of conspiracy and anti-trust violations.
(A corporate-friendly judge grudgingly fined GM a pittance; a company officer was fined $1; nobody went to jail.)
L.A.'s Metro Transit Authority had possession of the Red Cars but decided that buses (built by GM) were "cheaper".
They didn't factor in the externalities of already-dirty air in L.A. and already-crowded streets.
By 1961, the bureaucrats had starved it of resources and killed it off.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday August 04 2017, @07:21PM
First, LA is Louisiana.
Los Angeles (abbreviated L.A.)
The USPS really should have chosen a different abbreviation for Louisiana, perhaps "LO" or "LS".
LO has precedence with MA=MAssachusetts, and LS has precedence with AZ=AriZona. There was no absolute requirement that they use the first and last letters, or else those two would be MS and AA.