Whatever happened to the Hyperloop?

A decade after tech billionaire Elon Musk floated the idea of building a fifth mode of transportation called the Hyperloop, the project seems to be losing momentum. Last November, an above-ground test tunnel for Hyperloop pods that sat in front of SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California facility was reportedly removed. There is no Hyperloop service in the U.S. today.

First mentioned by Musk to a reporter in 2012, the Hyperloop is a high-speed electric vehicle that carries passengers and travels in a low-pressure environment such as a vacuum tube without touching the walls. It has the potential to accelerate travel between far-flung cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco – normally a five-and-a-half hour drive – in an hour and 15 minutes.

But this dream has remained unreachable thus far.“It doesn’t feel like we’re getting any closer,” lamented Jack Phillips, head of infrastructure and mechanical engineering advisor at Texas Guadaloop, which is developing Hyperloop technology. “Unfortunately, the sad reality … is that Hyperloop is not just an engineering problem (to be solved), it’s actually more so, in my opinion, a political and social perception challenge.”

Speaking at SXSW 2023 in Austin, Texas, Phillips cited a number of hurdles: cost, lack of regulations to ensure safety, and availability of other modes of transportation more familiar to people.

Technology also had a part to play. Phillips noted that Musk’s 2013 white paper on the Hyperloop proposed using an air-bearing pneumatic levitation system where air comes through little holes to lift and propel the passenger capsule without touching the tunnel’s walls. This was the same technology that his team at Guadaloop is developing, which won an innovation award from SpaceX in 2017.

However, “in the last several years, the Hyperloop industry has really seen a massive shift all to maglev (magnetic levitation)” instead of air-bearing, he said. That is because maglevs offer more benefits − much bigger ‘air gaps’ between the capsule and the tunnel, higher levitation energy efficiencies and lower maintenance costs. In an air-bearing system, when traveling at high speeds small air gaps get a lot of tear and any small debris would lead to ruptures, needing more repairs or replacements.

But whether maglev or air-bearing, the technology is there to make the Hyperloop a reality, so “why does it feel like we’re still so far away?” Phillips said.

For one, regulations on the Hyperloop have yet to be established since it is new technology.

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