ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Hyperloop One is celebrating a big milestone as they race to make their fast tube-based travel a reality.
The company announced Wednesday it has successfully completed the second phase of testing at their DevLoop track in Nevada.
“The Hyperloop One XP-1, the company's first-generation pod, accelerated for 300 meters and glided above the track using magnetic levitation before braking and coming to a gradual stop,” the company said in a statement.
During the test run on July 29, the Hyperloop One pod reached record speeds of up to 310 kph, which is about 192.63 mph.
It’s faster than phase one testing where it reached about 69 mph, but nowhere near the company's expected peak speed of more than 700 mph.
Hyperloops are essentially vacuum systems zipped through a low-pressure tube.
There are several proposed routes, including:
- Orlando to Miami
- Los Angeles to San Diego
- New York to Washington, D.C.
- St. Louis to Kansas City
- Austin to Dallas
The proposed route between Orlando to Miami would take riders from one city to another in about 26 minutes, according to Hyperloop One. The distance between Orlando and Miami is about 235 miles. It means the hyperloop would have to travel at a continuous speed of about 542 mph to get from Orlando to Miami in 26 minutes.
"We've proven that our technology works, and we're now ready to enter into discussions with partners, customers and governments around the world about the full commercialization of our Hyperloop technology," said Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd.
While autonomous cars are the talk of the future, there’s a competition to get autonomous pods to the market quickly as well.
Elon Musk, creator of SpaceX and Tesla, is working on his own version of a hyperloop.
Two weeks ago, Musk tweeted that he received verbal approval from the government to build a pod that would travel between New York and D.C. in just 29 minutes. He said his recently founded The Boring Company would build an underground tunnel through New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and D.C.
Brogan BamBrogan, a co-founder at Hyperloop One, left after getting into a legal battle with the company, and has since formed a rival hyperloop firm called Arrivo.
In January, Musk hosted a SpaceX Hyperloop competition, where 27 teams from across the world worked on accelerating the development of “functional prototypes” for high-speed pods.
Still, the Hyperloop One company performed the fastest speeds on a hyperloop with their phase two testing in the Nevada desert.
Garin Flowers is a reporter with 10News WTSP. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. You can also email him at gflowers@wtsp.com.
Mark Bergin is a digital journalist with 10News WTSP. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter and Instagram. You can also email him at mbergin@wtsp.com.
