Hyperloop tests and some Global Ideas.
LAS VEGAS -- A low-profile block of aluminum zipped across a short stretch of what looked like railroad tracks Wednesday before crashing into a tuft of sand and sending a small cloud into the clear skies of the desert north of Las Vegas.
The seconds-long demonstration by startup Hyperloop One marked the first public glimpse of a propulsion system that its creators hope will rocket people and cargo through tubes at the speed of sound in five years.
It took place as hundreds of journalists and investors watched from grandstands about 50 yards away after being bused to the site from a swanky casino.
"It's going to eliminate the barriers we face every day of time and distance. It's going to change our lives," CEO Rob Lloyd said a day earlier. "It's real. It's happening now."
Executives with the Los Angeles-based company said the system could whisk people the 350 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes.
They described a future where there's no such thing as a long-distance relationship, and it doesn't matter where you live because the commute to work would be so quick.
They say the tubes could run underground -- a safe alternative to highway crossings and inclement weather.
Personal note: There were some dissenters to not only this test but hyperloop's future. A professor said that driverless cars were invented 10 years ago but due to regulations, social issues and many other non-technical things such as land ownership, the hyperloop might not see the light of day for possibly decades.
To that professor, I say, absolutely correct, but what will happen is that countries with far less issues will leapfrog america and simply make it happen. Take China for example. When they get their hands on this, they will suddenly take a 20 year leap on american transportation.
The gentleman whose idea is on Youtube suggests the following.
A vacuum tube travelling from LA to Hong Kong in 2.5 hours!
In the first WEBEO of 2016, I propose a high speed vacuum tube, stretching 8067 miles from Los Angeles, USA to Hong Kong, China. The maximum speed will be 6000 mph between British Columbia and Northeast China, with other sections ranging between 600 mph and 2000 mph, based on terrain and curves.
Such a system will easily be the hardest to construct, as the line crosses the Bering Strait and frigid Siberia. While its economic and time benefits are easily realised, such a proposal may mean that supersonic air-travel must be revived, as such a solution, in the long run, may be cheaper. However, if transportation innovates as it has been, this would be the end result. Interesting, perhaps; expensive, definitely.
Note: The segment from Los Angeles to San Francisco could be a possible routing of Elon Musk's Hyperloop system.
Stops: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Beijing-Tianjin, Jinan, Nanjing-Shanghai, Shenzhen-Guangdong, and Hong Kong-West Kowloon.
Tokyo Branch: Shenyang, Pyongyang, Seoul-Incheon, Daegu, Hiroshima-Asakita, Osaka-Kyoto, Nagoya-Aichi, and Tokyo.
source: http://wishtv.com/2016/05/12/hyperloop-one-shows-off-super-speed-propulsion-technology/