2024-01-02 03:03:58
A cross between a Concorde, a cannon and an air hockey table. This is how Elon Musk defined hyperloop, the means of transportation that promises travel in a capsule through a tube through a vacuum system at speeds close to 1,000 kilometers per hour. The South African tycoon, promoter of the concept, said in 2013 that it would be “fantastic” to have an alternative to flying or driving, as long as it was better than flying or driving. Seven years later, however, the a priori revolutionary transportation system seems closer to failure than becoming a reality after one of the most important companies involved in its development, Hyperloop One, is about to close the closure.
As reported by the Bloomberg agency, the company, backed almost from its origin by billionaire Richard Branson, boss of Virgin Atlantic, has fired its employees, closed its offices and begun selling its assets.
Virgin Hyperloop was founded in 2014 and rebranded as Virgin Hyperloop One after its acquisition by Richard Branson in 2017. The company burst onto the scene, with tens of millions in its pockets and a global vision of the system for everyone. However, it soon became a money-burning machine in almost perpetual search for financing.
Although it achieved some relevant technological advances, such as the construction of a test track in Nevada (United States) or carrying out a test trip with humans with one of its capsules – although it barely reached 160 kilometers per hour, very far from the more than 1,000 promised – during the pandemic it lost almost its entire management team, founders included. In 2022, it decided to change its strategy and focus on the transport of goods after the Dubai company DP Port took control of its operations and cut its workforce by half, layoffs that were amplified in the following months.
Before, it also faced a severe setback in its plans when Saudi Arabia canceled an investment of 900 million euros that it had planned to make in the project through its sovereign fund, PIF, the same one that controls STC Group, the “teleco” that aspires to take over 9.9% of Telefónica. PIF canceled its investment after Branson criticized Saudi Arabia for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Detractors
The promoters of the different hyperloops around the world, including the Spanish startup Zeleros, have always been confident that, despite its complexity, the hyperloop is technically viable. One of them, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), published a study at the end of 2019 that, according to the company, confirmed that its hyperloop system is “faster, less expensive and more sustainable than other alternatives.” However, its detractors have always emphasized that, Although its creation is technically possible, financially it does not offer as many advantages over other means of transportation as its promoters sell. Although Musk assured when he launched the idea that it would cost a tenth of the cost of a high-speed train, some calculations made a couple of years ago already They had matched the costs of both. A study by the British Tunneling Society (BTS), for example, warned that, with current technology, it is impossible to achieve the savings that would be necessary to make hyperloop economically viable.
However, in the case of Spain, and for what could happen, UNE, the Standardization Organization in Spain, held a meeting on September 24 to pre-constitute the National Technical Committee related to hyperloop to establish the technical criteria with which would operate if it comes true.
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