Punch it Chewie! (Hyperloop is coming)

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Viktor Justin in Cyber-Secrets, Technology, Transportation

Hyperspeed yes. Of course. We all saw Millenium Falcon trying to achieve this back in the first Star Wars movies. Get the Dzongspoked Elongo-Hydraccustic 13,45″ Helix-Pliers Chewbie, and Punch it! (The goddam hyperdrive). But sometimes the hyperdrive dosen’t work, does it? Well, the time is now for at least two big startups to find it out in a galaxy very very near us: our own! More precisely in the Czech Republic in Europe.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) races Hyperloop One while announcing yesterday that it has signed an agreement to research the possibilities of a line between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Founded in 2013, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. (HTT) is a global team focused on removing barriers of speed and congestion in travel. Hyperloop first gained public interest when entrepreneur Elon Musk published a detailed white paper describing a futuristic mode of transport that would move people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 36 minutes. HTT has agreed with the city of Bratislava, Slovakia to build a hyperloop there.

The new deal will help prepare the foundations of a route bridging the 80 miles between Brno (Czech Republic) to Bratislava and from there 140 miles south to Prague. HTT also says it has an agreement with Abu Dhabi and has made some preliminary inquiries to possibly build in Melbourne, Australia.

Rendering of what the HTT system might look like in Brno, Czech Republic.

H1 and HTT are racing head to head to reach agreements with governments worldwide while raising funds to build their futuristic tubes. The first playgrounds will likely be the United Arab Emirates and Eastern Europe, where it seems easier to push through new and untested systems without the governments complaining a lot. HTT recently raised $100 million to get it up to speed approximately $31 million from it in cold hard cash.

“Since we have solved all the technical issues, it is now crucial for us to collaborate with governments around the world,” HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn said. “It is critical for Hyperloop to be working directly with regulators at this stage of development, new rules and frameworks will need to be written as we begin building out systems in Slovakia, the Emirates and several others to come.”

The Czech agreement can relieve Brno’s old train system, which is one of the oldest railway stations in the Czech Republic according to Wikipedia.

Of course not everyone is optimistic about such revolutionary concepts. Here comes the good old scepticals, questioning vacuum usage, and just about every and any condition proposed by the pioneers. We must give them credit for thoroughly overthinking the project, and raising some serious doubts. Which of course will not keep Elon Musk from dreaming further, and his shareholders to vote for him by the cashier. We wil tell you about the results as things commence.