Elon Musk is too busy running both SpaceX and Tesla Motors to be worrying about making his Hyperloop concept a reality, which is why he decided to open-source the idea and allow other companies to pursue their own Hyperloop projects. The most promising of these projects comes from a company called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which has announced that a prototype Hyperloop track will begin construction in California in about two to three weeks, which will cost around $150 million to build and is expected to take 32 months to finish.
A prototype for Elon Musk’s high-speed transportation network will reportedly begin construction in “two to three weeks.” Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, one of the companies pursuing Musk’s open source Hyperloop project, attended a Construct//Disrupt event in London last week where it told design magazine Dezeen that the prototype was on its way. According to Bibop Gabriele Gresta, chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, the test track will cover a five-mile stretch in Quay Valley in California. It’s expected to take 32 months to complete and cost roughly $150 million. When completed, Gresta says it will be able to transport 10 million passengers during the testing process. He told Dezeen “it is the closest thing to teletransportation… it will completely change humanity.” Hyperloop Transportation Technologies will essentially be building large elevated tubes filled with vacuums and magnets, as well as computer-automated “capsules” that can achieve speeds up to 760 miles per hour — pretty close to the speed of sound. That said, the capsules will only travel that fast when they’re empty; the company says it will transport passengers at speeds up to 160 miles per hour.
