door businessam.be
published on Sunday, December 24, 2023 at 3:27 PM •
2 min read
One of the longest running hyperloop startups Hyperloop One, once backed by Richard Branson, is closing down. According to Bloomberg, that will happen on December 31.
A hyperloop is a transport system in which a magnetic levitation train runs through a vacuum tube. Because there is almost no air in the tubes, the resistance is extremely low and very high speeds can be reached up to 1,100 kilometers per hour.
The hyperloop was originally an idea of Elon Musk who wrote a white paper about it in 2013. Hyperloop One was one of many initiatives and has raised and spent hundreds of millions of dollars since its founding in 2014.
Aside from a handful of tech demos and test tracks, the idea still hasn’t gotten off the ground.
The project suffered continued setbacks. An argument arose between the co-founders. The project was named Virgin Hyperloop One after Richard Branson invested in 2017. But when Branson criticized Saudi Arabia after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the kingdom withdrew as an investor.
Port authority DP World gained majority control and shifted focus to cargo in early 2022.
The Dutch Hardt Hyperloop is therefore one of the few remaining initiatives. That company hopes that there will be a commercial hyperloop in Europe by 2030. The Delft startup wants to complete all safety tests with the super-fast transport system by 2027.
[Bron: Emerce]
2023-12-24 14:27:02
#Hyperloop
