The test, held on Wednesday 12 May, represents an early proof of concept of the electromagnetic propulsion technology that, once completed, could transport cargo and eventually passengers at speeds of over 750mph through vacuum tubes between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 30 minutes.
As well as the test and the name change, Hyperloop One also announced it had closed an $80million (£55m) series B funding round which includes investment from French rail company SNCF. A series of other partnerships including Deutsche Bahn Engineering & Consulting, international engineering and consulting group, Systra, and the British engineering consultancy group Arup, which is currently working on London’s Crossrail, have also been made.
Brogan BamBrogan, Hyperloop One co-founder and CTO said, “We are proud to show off our progress today and look forward to meeting more milestones on our way to debuting a full-scale system later this year.”
Hyperloop One is racing Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to bring Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s vision of near speed of sound transportation to life.
On Monday 9 May, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies said it had developed a way to elevate its Hyperloop pods by using permanent magnets. This represents a cheaper propulsion method that also conserves more energy than previous techniques.
Both companies are also looking at other locations that could potentially benefit from a similar Hyperloop system including links between Los Angeles and Long Beach, Helsinki and Stockholm, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary and a completely underground cargo version in Switzerland.
