Acabion Envisions Tube Traffic Internet for 2015

We’ve seen tube-travel networks by now in a number of science-fiction movies or cartoons, and we’ve all been dreaming this would once be possible. But we’ve never thought that work on vehicles capable of tube-travel is already underway.

A Swiss company that goes by the name of Acabion, and led by none other than former Porsche, BMW and Ferrari engineer Peter Maskus, is currently working on developing vehicles that it claims will be the “certified successor of cars.”

With streamliner looks, these vehicles are expected to become available sometime in 2015. But hi-tech vehicles would also need a proper transportation infrastructure. So Acabion went further and envisioned vacuum tubes that would stand as a traffic internet for the aforementioned vehicles.

Elevated tracks over highways would be automated, and at their end, Acabion users can still drive on existing roads. These traffic internets would come with travel speeds around 300 km/h to begin with, going to about 600 km/h and more in the coming decades. The whole operation has been planned to be solar electric in 2050.

“Two tubes between New York and Paris, 1.5 meters in diameter each, maglev driven and fully automatic controlled, will move three times more people between America and Europe than all airplanes do today,” Maskus said.

The company is now working on the GTBO VIII "da Vinci," a $15 million fully electric vehicle with a top speed of 375 mph (604 km/h) that Acabion claims is 20 times more efficient than current zero-emission vehicles.

The base Acabion GTBO has an engine from the Suzuki Hayabusa, and claims a top speed of 340 mph (547 km/h). It can get 100 mpg (2.35 l/100km) at 100 mph (161 km/h)... oh... and about $2.5 million out of your pocket.