"Hyperloop" The future of travel to be unveiled today.

Celticfire

The fevered speculation about billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's mysterious "Hyperloop" transport system is about to come to an end.

Musk, the visionary behind electric-car firm Tesla and the private spaceflight company SpaceX, has said he will unveil a Hyperloop design later today, after teasing the world about the superfast travel technology for more than a year.

The solar-powered Hyperloop would allow passengers to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes, Musk has said, meaning it must travel at speeds greater than 600 mph (966 km/h). The system would be cheap and convenient, he added, with tickets costing less than a seat aboard a plane or train and Hyperloop vehicles departing frequently from their various stations.

Though we don't know exactly how the Hyperloop will work or what it will look like, Musk has dropped some hints since first disclosing the concept in July 2012. For example, this past May he described the Hyperloop as a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table."

Using that statement as inspiration, self-described "tinker" John Gardi drew up a design of a system that uses air to blast cars through long tubes. Gardi's concept "is the closest I've seen anyone guess so far," Musk tweeted on July 15. (See the diagram on Gardi's Twitter page here.)

Musk has shared some other news about the project lately, revealing that he probably won't have much time to develop the Hyperloop — at least not in the near future.

"I have to focus on core Tesla business and SpaceX business, and that's more than enough," Musk said last week during a conference call with Tesla investors, Gizmodo reported.

During the call, Musk expressed hope that the worldwide community of engineers, inventors and tinkers can make something happen with the Hyperloop design he puts out there. But he didn't close off the possibility of helping out in the future.

Is this going to be the next revolution in travel? I look forward to seeing the unveiled design.

wazky

Does it take 1.21 gigawatts to power it?

Vegeta

mag lev in a vacuum is my guess.

Cee-Jay-Cee

What happens if you live in LA but want to go to New York? Notmuch use if the feckin thing only goes to San Fran!

Celly Smunt

Vegeta wrote: »

mag lev in a vacuum is my guess.

Wouldn't it be exetremely difficult to bring something to a reasonable speed over a reasonable distance after travelling in a vacuum though? (I could be talking out of my arse though,its been a while since physics has been my material of study)

Celly Smunt

CJC999 wrote: »

What happens if you live in LA but want to go to New York? Notmuch use if the feckin thing only goes to San Fran!

Still though,L.A to San Francisco in 30 minutes would be San frantastic.

Sinfonia

IT

Celticfire

wazky wrote: »

Does it take 1.21 gigawatts to power it?

It's not time travel..:pac:

Vegeta wrote: »

mag lev in a vacuum is my guess.

I guess it's something along that line but there must be a little twist somewhere to make it viable.

Vegeta

Celly Smunt wrote: »

Wouldn't it be exetremely difficult to bring something to a reasonable speed over a reasonable distance after travelling in a vacuum though? (I could be talking out of my arse though,its been a while since physics has been my material of study)

I believe it's the opposite, no air to cause drag/resistance so objects can move more quickly, with less effort while generating less heat.

The Backwards Man

So, it's a train then?

GalwayGuy2

How did the Americans not get this already? Honestly, the faster they can travel troops, the better for the current way war is fought.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Yes the Americans are just about to invent the train.

Dyr

Monoraiiiill!

Celly Smunt

Vegeta wrote: »

I believe it's the opposite, no air to cause drag/resistance so objects can move more quickly, with less effort while generating less heat.

That's what I mean though,its bring something to a stop that's the problem.A sudden change from Vacuum to "normal atmosphere" would entail a lot of friction as the vehicle would be coming from such high speed in a vacuum.

Andersonisgod

I'm picturing those kind of tubes the characters in Futurama use to travel, am I way off?

Tzetze

I bet it's those tube things out of futurama.

Celticfire

Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk

Pulled all nighter working on Hyperloop (as did others). Hopefully not too many mistakes. Will publish link at 1:30 PDT.

From twitter...

MadsL

The bad news is that it travels at 600mph+ towards LA. In other news it travels 600mph+ away from LA.

The takeaway I suppose is that LA is a place to be avoided.

TPD

Celly Smunt wrote: »

That's what I mean though,its bring something to a stop that's the problem.A sudden change from Vacuum to "normal atmosphere" would entail a lot of friction as the vehicle would be coming from such high speed in a vacuum.

The 'rail gun' part would imply it uses magnets for acceleration - no reason they wouldn't be used to decelerate also, while still in the vacuum.

Amirani

I'd say the Brits are gutted they've thrown so much at HS2 now.

NuckingFacker

I'm thinking massive catapults and catch nets...

I am pie

It sounds cheap and practical alright, I mean all they need to do is build a tube right across america strong enough to carry a train and passengers, then fill that tube with magnets and shoot a train through it.

Not much to it, easy enough right?

MadsL

NuckingFacker wrote: »

I'm thinking massive catapults and catch nets...

I advise against the ACME brand.
Terrible reviews from a guy called W. E. Coyote.

Amirani

I am pie wrote: »

It sounds cheap and practical alright, I mean all they need to do is build a tube right across america strong enough to carry a train and passengers, then fill that tube with magnets and shoot a train through it.

Not much to it, easy enough right?

There's a few hills.

Celly Smunt

NiallSparky wrote: »

There's a few hills.

a few potholes around Arizona too

aaronjumper

Wouldn't want to leave anything on board. It's annoying enough when you leave something in a taxi or on the bus.

"Think I left my bag on the-" *Boom! Other side of the country*

shane9689

links and pics please!

Celticfire

shane9689 wrote: »

links and pics please!

None until the unveiling at 1:30pm pacific time.

MadsL

Truthfully America missed a great opportunity to have an incredible passenger rail system. It has a fantastic freight rail system.

There are passenger trains, but whilst it is 2,015 miles Chicago to LA, and a 30 hour drive, the same journey by train takes 40+ hours.

The TGV can get you from Paris to Milan in 7h10m - approx 500 miles. A TGV system could see you in LA 28 hours after leaving Chicago.

The problem in the US is that passengers are seen as a nuisance to freight.

Lu Tze

to paraphrase - I have had it with these mother****ing solenoids on this mother****ing train

Celly Smunt

MadsL wrote: »

Truthfully America missed a great opportunity to have an incredible passenger rail system. It has a fantastic freight rail system.

There are passenger trains, but whilst it is 2,015 miles Chicago to LA, and a 30 hour drive, the same journey by train takes 40+ hours.

The TGV can get you from Paris to Milan in 7h10m - approx 500 miles. A TGV system could see you in LA 28 hours after leaving Chicago.

The problem in the US is that passengers are seen as a nuisance to freight.

or you could just fly rather than spending 28 hours on a train.

sdanseo

Vegeta wrote: »

mag lev in a vacuum is my guess.

Saw a documentary about something like that, the idea was a transatlantic tunnel though. Speculation there was an hour from NY to London, so a tad faster than 1,000km/h.

Nemeses

The Backwards Man wrote: »

So, it's a train then?

A tube train..

Wait, Isn't that the London Underground?

I am pie

AMTRAK loses 600 million dollars a year.

Apart from that, it is awesome.

Celly Smunt

Maybe its a hoverboard vacuum tunnel.Sweet Jesus let it be a hoverboard vacuum tunnel.

hal9000

Im guessing it will just be a normal train with speed holes and go faster stripes

UCDVet

I can only hope it's as game changing as the electric car has been!

Elbaston

My solution for Irelands rail system is little mini-trains, 1 or 2 or 4 or 10 passenger pods.
You buy a ticket, get assigned a pod, an immigrant attaches it to the track. (via a crane contraption) And off you go, at great speed.
When you arrive the doors open, you get out and its removed from the tracks by an oompa loompa (via a crane contraption).

The track is specially designed so its electrified on the inside of the track, its too detailed to describe here without a pen.

My other design was simply a giant conveyor belt in place of the tracks. Rotating along the current routes. Arrive at the station, hop on the belt, no waiting.

MadsL

Celly Smunt wrote: »

or you could just fly rather than spending 28 hours on a train.

With the associated emissions.

Frankly for short journeys (under 8 hours) TGV speed trains makes more sense than flying.

Flight time Paris to Milan is 1h18m.

Drive to airport from central Paris: 50 min
Check in time CDG: 1 hour 30 min
Flight time: 1 hour 18 min
Airport deplaning: 30 mins
Bus to downtown Milan: 50 mins

Total = 5 hours with all the hassle of getting to/from airports.

2 hours more and you travel from city centre to city centre.

In a US context:

Chicago to Denver.

City to ORD = 50 mins - 1 hour
Check in time CDG: 1 hour 30 min
Flight time = 2 hour 30 min
Deplane = 30 min
Taxi to Denver city = 40-60 mins

So six and half hours of travel hassle and traffic verses TGV speeds of approx 14 hours city to city. If that were improved to 200 mph, you could expect journey times to rival flying.

MadsL

Elbaston wrote: »

My solution for Irelands rail system is little mini-trains, 1 or 2 or 4 or 10 passenger pods.
You buy a ticket, get assigned a pod, an immigrant attaches it to the track. (via a crane contraption) And off you go, at great speed.
When you arrive the doors open, you get out and its removed from the tracks by an oompa loompa (via a crane contraption).

The track is specially designed so its electrified on the inside of the track, its too detailed to describe here without a pen.

My other design was simply a giant conveyor belt in place of the tracks. Rotating along the current routes. Arrive at the station, hop on the belt, no waiting.

Fecking Ooompa Loompa's taking immigrants jobs!!

Celly Smunt

MadsL wrote: »

With the associated emissions.

Frankly for short journeys (under 8 hours) TGV speed trains makes more sense than flying.

Flight time Paris to Milan is 1h18m.

Drive to airport from central Paris: 50 min
Check in time CDG: 1 hour 30 min
Flight time: 1 hour 18 min
Airport deplaning: 30 mins
Bus to downtown Milan: 50 mins

Total = 5 hours with all the hassle of getting to/from airports.

2 hours more and you travel from city centre to city centre.

In a US context:

Chicago to Denver.

City to ORD = 50 mins - 1 hour
Check in time CDG: 1 hour 30 min
Flight time = 2 hour 30 min
Deplane = 30 min
Taxi to Denver city = 40-60 mins

So six and half hours of travel hassle and traffic verses TGV speeds of approx 14 hours city to city. If that were improved to 200 mph, you could expect journey times to rival flying.

There's a big difference between 5 hours and 14 hours.

MadsL

Elbaston wrote: »

My solution for Irelands rail system is little mini-trains, 1 or 2 or 4 or 10 passenger pods.
You buy a ticket, get assigned a pod, an immigrant attaches it to the track. (via a crane contraption) And off you go, at great speed.
When you arrive the doors open, you get out and its removed from the tracks by an oompa loompa (via a crane contraption).

The track is specially designed so its electrified on the inside of the track, its too detailed to describe here without a pen.

My other design was simply a giant conveyor belt in place of the tracks. Rotating along the current routes. Arrive at the station, hop on the belt, no waiting.

Google have invested in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n27B9xtZMTE

MadsL

Celly Smunt wrote: »

There's a big difference between 5 hours and 14 hours.

But not so much between 6.5 hours and 8 hours...

Would you rather walk to the rail station and take one mode of transport for 8 hours.

Or taxi in traffic, bag drop, security check, plane, collect bag, taxi in traffic for six and a half hours?

I think I would even take a 3-4 hour time penalty to avoid the airport. Flying is becoming hell.

aaronjumper

Anything that does those kinds of speeds would need a huge amount of safety features.

Dyr

600 mph and we'd still make the fking thing stop in limerick junction I bet

kneemos

600mph is too fast for a convential train and mag lev is way too expensive.

Carnegie

kneemos wrote: »

600mph is too fast for a convential train and mag lev is way too expensive.

tweet Musk and tell him to cancel the presentation

Wompa1

Gotta love the nay saying and the second guessing of something that hasn't even been presented yet.

My 2 cents, it's powered completely using Steorn Orbo!

Carnegie

only a fool would bet against Musk to pull this off, he delivers 10 times out of 10

Mario852

kneemos wrote: »

600mph is too fast for a convential train and mag lev is way too expensive.

They say it will be able to reach an average of 2000 mph from US to China.

I think it would be too expensive for it to be a train.

"New York to Beijing, China, in about 2 hours," said Daryl Oster, founder of ET3. "That's 8,000 miles or 4,000 miles per hour. L.A. to New York would be in 45 minutes, with a likely speed of 2,000 mph."

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100955989

Guy:Incognito

I bet its a giant catapult.