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Hyperloop One, the Los-Angeles-based company developing the
technology, is gearing up to send a 28-foot-long (8.5
meter-long) pod hurtling down a set of tracks in a test run in
Nevada in the next few weeks, spokeswoman Marcy Simon said.
Hyperloop One is working to develop a technical vision proposed
by Musk, the founder of rocket maker SpaceX and electric car
company Tesla Motors. In 2013, he suggested sending pods with
passengers through giant vacuum tubes between Los Angeles and
San Francisco.
Hyperloop aims to achieve speeds of 250 mph (402 km/h) in its
upcoming phase of testing.
As it gears up for that experiment, the company on Wednesday
released the results from a May 12 test in the Nevada desert. A
Hyperloop One sled on wheels for the first time coasted above a
track using magnets, Simon said.
It levitated for 5.3 seconds in a vacuum-sealed tube and reached
speeds of 70 miles per hour (113 km/h), the company said in a
statement. By comparison, another test by Hyperloop One that
made national headlines last year was done on an open-air track,
not in the tube, a key to achieving high speeds.
Backers of the project envision the pods reaching speeds of 750
miles per hour (1,200 kph), but skeptics say the hyperloop idea
faces real-world challenges ranging from obtaining construction
permits to making turns at jet speed.
Hyperloop One has raised $160 million in funding and has touted
the technology's potential as a rapid-transit option.
"Hyperloop One will move people and things faster than at any
other time in the world," Shervin Pishevar, co-founder and
executive chairman of Hyperloop One, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie
Adler)
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