[Next-generation Transportation] Hyperloop! Why is it so special?

Hello. It is Hive account@hunhani.

This time, we will have a time to talk about the advantages of next-generation transportation, Hyperloop.

Elon Musk’s ambitious project, Hyperloop!

Elon Musk, who founded Tesla Motors, a US electric car enterprise, and Space X, a private space freight company, is called real version of Iron Man Tony Stark. He proposed the Hyperloop project in 2012. The hyper loop runs on the ground, but with vacuum technology, it can produce speeds comparable to any other plane.

Why we call the Hyperloop as the next-generation transportation?

◇ Extreme speed realization

The Hyperloop uses a vacuum tube to move passengers or goods. It is like a shooting of train in a vacuum tube. It takes only about 16 minutes from Seoul to Busan at speeds of up to 1200km/hour, which is close to sonic speed. On the other hand, high-speed trains are only about 240km/hour. It is amazing that Hyperloop is much faster than KTX(Korea Train eXpress) (330km/hour) and Boeing 787 aircraft (1040km/hour).

◇ Low cost

According to the Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project, it will be available from San Francisco to Los Angeles within only 60$ for round-trip. On the other hands, the fare of high-speed railway under construction in California is expected to be 89$ for round-trip between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The hyper loop is also advantageous compared to an airplane. The one-way flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles costs 125$, which takes more than twice.

◇ Frequent service

The hyper loop can theoretically start every 30 seconds. According to the Prof. Craig Hodgetts in UCLA, who is the designer of Hyperloop project, The Hyperloop capsule on which passengers board can arrive every 30 to 120 seconds. Compared to driving a California high-speed train every 20 minutes in peak season, there is nothing to worry about the train service when the hyperloop is commercialized.

◇ Reduce construction costs

Elon Musk expected 7.5 billion dollars to build the 600 km Hyperloop project. Considering the cost of the HyperLoop transportation technology project, they allocating up to 16 billion dollars. It is much cheaper than the 370 km California high-speed railway costing 12.7 billion dollars.

◇ Future-oriented technology

The high-speed railway has been around for a long time. Though related technologies have been improved, Hyperloop technology are not only a new concept, but also more feasible in many ways. The Hyperloop uses solar energy in tubes that are close to vacuum. The traffic congestion problem would be solved with the Hyperloop because it is more flexible about steep slopes and not affected by weather or natural disasters.

If there are so many advantages, there must exist some disadvantages! Next time, we will discuss the problems of Hyperloop and the way to overcome them.

All images used in this post are from Google Images.

# YHH