We could be riding these tubes in the future

The Hyperloop transportation dreamt up by tech rockstar, Elon Musk, is not just fantasy, as it turns out. It’s actually taking shape, all the way in the Nevada desert. Hyperloop Technologies has already manufactured the mammoth tubes which are now being pieced together to erect a three-mile test track by the end of the year.

The company is one of two (the other being of a similar name, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies) which took up the challenge to create a feasible design from the white paper that Musk published in 2013. 

Rob Lloyd, a former Cisco executive, is leading Hyperloop Technologies in the endeavour that, if successful, would lead to a track between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and a commute that takes just half an hour.

The tubes – measuring 50-feet long and 12-feet diameter - are made from carbon steel, and weighs more than 30,000kg each. These tubes will be assembled to form a depressurised vacuous conduit, through which passenger pods can propel at great speeds – over 700 mph.

The Hyperloop system can also be used to transport cargo, a greener alternative to conventional methods, according to the company, which claims that the world’s top 15 cargo ships contribute to more pollution than all the cars in the world. (Read also about how drones could take over delivery service in the future.)

Lloyd is so confident that they will make it work that he coolly offered a CNNMoney reporter, during an interview, a front seat on the Hyperloop in 2021. “…and if we continue to see the progress we’re making today, maybe 2020,” he concluded.

We look forward to and embrace any progress in transportation (teleportation being our ultimate dream), but if we were her, we wouldn’t want to be one of the early test subjects for such a novel technology.

The other company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, is also building a test track, a longer one that measures five miles. But size doesn’t matter...does it? Read also: Elon Musk’s Hyperloop dream is coming true