Sure it’s fast, but what is a hyperloop?
Jan 9, 2017, 6:33 AM | Updated: 9:14 am
There are many organizations attempting to design a hyperloop, such as this project in Nevada. (AP)
(AP)
Sure, it’s fast. It’s hyped up as a 15-minute trip between Portland and Seattle. But what is a hyperloop?
“They are working in areas like the Middle East and Europe, in open areas, to first build hyperloops as a cargo system, before moving on to make a passenger system,” University of Washington student Malachi Williams told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz. “I believe when you’re buying something off Amazon, and you have Amazon Prime ordering, and right under that you could have ‘hyperloop’ and have your item in less than 30 minutes. That would be a game changer.”
Related: How the UW hyperloop could speed into reality
And that’s the basic idea. A hyperloop will be a new form of transportation technology that will move objects far faster around the globe than currently possible.
Williams spoke with Rantz, along with fellow UW student Max Pfeiffer. The two are part of a UW project to meet a challenge posed by Elon Musk and SpaceX — to engineer a hyperloop system.
“I like to think of the hyperloop as a cross between the bullet train they have in Japan and one of the vacuum tubes they have at a bank,” Pfeiffer said. “What our team is doing is trying to marry the two and create a pod that can travel down an evacuated tube on a magnetic levitation system at incredibly high speeds.”
What about people in the hyperloop?
The analogy promoted in the media recently is that their system can shuttle people between Portland and Seattle in 15 minutes. But as Williams points out, such a system will likely be for items first, instead of people.
But moving people around eventually will be an option, but that won’t mean that current investments in light rail or buses will go to waste.
“The key for hyperloop is that it is really only efficient on long distances,” Pfeiffer said. “So things like light rail or buses, the short distance transportation that Seattle has been slowly improving will be worthwhile in the long run. It’s travel applications like planes, trains, and boats that a hyperloop will phase out as it becomes more efficient and quicker.”
But when the time comes and people will slip inside a hyperloop themselves, will Pfeiffer and Williams be first in line?
“The acceleration and deceleration on the pod is similar to how it feels when you take off and land on a plane,” Williams said. “The ride, you wouldn’t feel any forces.”
“I think so as long as I was confident in the group of people who built the pod,” Pfeiffer said.
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