A Hyperloop system proposed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk would create a hyper-speed transportation system that can bring passengers from New York to Los Angeles in less than an hour, and it uses the technology you see inside your bank.
The high-speed transportation system, known as the Hyperloop, is a tube transportation system that allows passengers to travel at extraordinary speeds. It would mean travel across the nation in close to an hour, and Los Angeles to San Francisco in mere minutes.
One company called ET3 is working on what is known as an “Evacuated Tube Transport” that’s based on the same basic technology used on the series of tubes once used to send documents in banks, offices, and hospitals.
The company said it is working on a system to send car-sized transportation capsules up to 4,000 mph through giant tubes. Each car would carry up to six people.
Elon Musk has described the Hyperloop as a “cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.” And despite the incredible speed, he said the transportation system would be completely safe .
“This system I have in mind, how would you like something that can never crash, is immune to weather, it goes 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train,” said Musk last year. “It goes an average speed of twice what an aircraft would do. You would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. It would cost you much less than an air ticket than any other mode of transport. I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system. There’s a way to store the power so it would run 24/7 without using batteries. Yes, this is possible, absolutely.”
ET3 said the system would cost only a fraction of the proposed high-speed rail systems, and tubes could be built along major interstates. Tubes could even be built underwater, allowing travel to Europe or China.
If Elon Musk and ET3 could complete the Hyperloop system, it would make other efforts to build high-speed rail obsolete. In California a proposed $70 billion high-speed rail system would bring passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in three hours — about six times slower than the Hyperloop.