(Pocket-lint) – Virgin Hyperloop has announced it successfully tested human travel in a hyperloop pod for the first time. On Sunday, the company completed a low-speed test at a site in the Nevada desert, where it has completed over 400 unoccupied tests to date.
A hyperloop is a sustainable form of transportation that involves magnetic levitation to propel a pod carrying passengers through a vacuum tube or tunnel at speeds that exceed 600 miles per hour, topping highspeed trains in Japan and Germany. There are a few companies testing hyperloop concepts, including Virgin Hyperloop. Its test from 8 November featured just two passengers reaching 107 miles per hour. It took 15 seconds on a 500-meter track.
Virgin Hyperloop is hoping to seat up to 28 passengers in its hyperloop train. “For the past few years, the Virgin Hyperloop team has been working on turning its ground-breaking technology into reality,” said Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, in a statement to the media. “With today’s successful test, we have shown that this spirit of innovation will in fact change the way people everywhere live, work, and travel in the years to come.”
Branson’s company envisions a hyperloop system where a trip between New York and Washington could theoretically take just 30 minutes. Of course, we’re still a long way off from that, as Virgin Hyperloop is only conducting tests at the moment, and it’s unclear if the concept will ever work as theorised at full speed.
Writing by Maggie Tillman.
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