Photo: SpaceX
Elon Musk introduced us to the Hyperloop concept in 2013, one year after a group of engineers from SpaceX and Tesla started working on it. After ten years, the ambitious transportation project was abandoned, and the former test track in Los Angeles was turned into an employee parking lot.
Since the homo sapiens stage, humans have tried to shape the world they lived in, starting with transportation. The invention of the wheel was crucial, but as it evolved, humankind found other solutions that were better suited for going from A to B in a timely fashion. Ten years ago, the Hyperloop sparked the imagination of humans, thanks to Elon Musk. I suspect the “hyperloop” name has more to do with the hype than the Greek “hyper.”
As hyped as it was, the Hyperloop concept has faded from a high-speed pod traveling inside a vacuum tube to a boring tunnel for Tesla cars to drive underground. I guess that’s where the Boring Company name came from. Boring as it was, we expected Elon Musk to eventually lose interest completely in the new transportation system, which is what just happened.
According to Bloomberg, the once-hyped Hyperloop test track in Los Angeles has been dismantled. The one-mile-long white cylinder running along Jack Northrop Avenue near the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. office in Hawthorne, California, has disappeared completely. In its place, parking lots for SpaceX employees will be built, according to local city council members.
Following Elon Musk’s invitation in 2013 to other companies to develop the Hyperloop project, several projects have been established around the world. They buried large amounts of money in research and development, but none so far managed to fulfill the dream of fast and efficient transportation that the original concept promised. The most advanced is the Virgin Hyperloop, which has already completed the first passenger test. The problem: the travel speed was only 100 mph (162 kph), far from the promised subsonic speeds.
As hyped as it was, the Hyperloop concept has faded from a high-speed pod traveling inside a vacuum tube to a boring tunnel for Tesla cars to drive underground. I guess that’s where the Boring Company name came from. Boring as it was, we expected Elon Musk to eventually lose interest completely in the new transportation system, which is what just happened.
According to Bloomberg, the once-hyped Hyperloop test track in Los Angeles has been dismantled. The one-mile-long white cylinder running along Jack Northrop Avenue near the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. office in Hawthorne, California, has disappeared completely. In its place, parking lots for SpaceX employees will be built, according to local city council members.
Following Elon Musk’s invitation in 2013 to other companies to develop the Hyperloop project, several projects have been established around the world. They buried large amounts of money in research and development, but none so far managed to fulfill the dream of fast and efficient transportation that the original concept promised. The most advanced is the Virgin Hyperloop, which has already completed the first passenger test. The problem: the travel speed was only 100 mph (162 kph), far from the promised subsonic speeds.
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