Hyperlooptan super-speed train with a speed of more than 1,200km/h disappears into thin air

The Hyperlooptan super-speed train with a speed of more than 1,200km/h, nearly supersonic speed, described by billionaire Elon Musk could not become a reality .

Hyperloop One , the futuristic transportation startup that promised to transport us through nearly airless tubes at near-supersonic speeds, is shutting down.

According to Bloomberg News, Hyperloop One is selling off assets, closing offices and laying off employees before officially closing later this year.

This information is almost a sign that the dream of high-speed human transportation is almost impossible to realize at the present time.

Hyperloop model on display at the aerospace department of the TU Technical University in Munich (Germany) - (Photo: AFP).

Pipeline to the future

Hyperloop is a futuristic transportation concept unveiled by Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, in 2013. Musk theorizes that aluminum capsules filled with passengers or cargo could be propelled through a nearly airless tube at speeds of up to 750 mph.

These tubes, either elevated or buried underground, could be built into cities. Mr Musk calls it the 'fifth mode of transport' and says it could change the way we live, work, shop and travel.

The most eye-catching scenario that this billionaire has drawn is to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 30 minutes, while the flight takes about 1.5 hours. This idea has attracted the curiosity of engineers and investors around the world.

Hyperloop One, formerly known as Virgin Hyperloop , is one of the first and largest startups in the field. The company was founded in 2014 as Hyperloop Technologies before changing its name to Hyperloop One in 2016 and then to Virgin Hyperloop One after being acquired by billionaire Richard Branson's company.

The company has raised about $450 million from venture capital and other investments, thanks to its bold vision of hyperloop systems around the world.

The company has made some important strides, including building a test track in Nevada to test the safety and feasibility of the technology.

In 2020, Hyperloop One conducted its first and so far only test with human passengers, with the capsule reaching a top speed of just over 100 miles per hour, far short of the original vision of seven times that.

Barriers of the times

Hyperloop One has not only faced technical challenges, but has also endured legal and financial troubles. In 2017, the company settled a lawsuit with one of its co-founders, Brogan BamBrogan, over allegations of harassment and vandalism.

A year later, another co-founder, Shervin Pishevar, was fired over sexual assault allegations. The company was also chronically short of cash. During the pandemic, nearly all of Hyperloop One's top executives and founders left.

Hyperloop One also dropped Virgin from its name after the company decided to stop carrying passengers and instead focus on cargo.

Hyperloop One is just a small detail in the big picture. 2023 marks 10 years since billionaire Elon Musk first proposed the idea of ​​this mode of transportation, but no one has succeeded despite "burning" hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even Elon Musk's Boring Company has faced challenges. When the billionaire first proposed the hyperloop technology, he used a 350-mile route from Los Angeles to San Francisco as an example. In fact, the Boring Company's most important project to date is a 2.5-mile tunnel under the Las Vegas convention center.

Today, there is no full-scale hyperloop anywhere in the world. Mr Musk's test tunnel in California has disappeared. The billionaire himself has become more interested in discussing anti-Semitic theories on the social network X than in solving transportation problems.

According to The Verge, critics argue that while hyperloop may be technically feasible, it is still just vaporware . Vaporware is a term used to describe software, computer hardware, or other related products that have been announced but never released.

Hyperloop has been called a "utopian vision" that is financially unattainable and will take years to complete.

China has hyperloop by 2035?

According to the South China Morning Post, China plans to put the hyperloop system into operation by 2035.

With features including high security, low energy consumption, low noise and pollution levels, hyperloop can travel 10 times faster than traditional high-speed trains and 5 times faster than commercial passenger planes.

Project scientists are considering a number of factors to build China's first hyperloop route, including the population density of the areas, economic activity and existing transport infrastructure in the connecting cities.

The first hyperloop line is expected to be built between Shanghai and Hangzhou.

While road traffic currently takes about three hours to travel the 175km between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the hyperloop system would take just 15 minutes.

China has been a leader in high-speed rail technology, and investing in hyperloop technology could help maintain its global leadership in transportation innovation.