Changing the game with hyperloop

Companies have ensured transportation pods are no longer a blueprint; this tube is hoping to disrupt travelling systems world-over

I know of hyperloop because I am constantly on a search for things and technology that can make us travel in ways outside of an aeroplane. I have never been fascinated with flights for the turbulence and the bumpiness always has the worst of me. It turns out that I am not alone. A lot of men and women who travel every single day for work from place to place are beginning to tire of the time and energy spent in travel.

What’s hyperloop? Transporting people in high speed vacuum capsules, or magnetic pods combined with a massive levitation systems. This tube technology is hoping to disrupt travelling systems around the world. 

Hyperloop is a concept Elon Musk has talked and dreamt about but hasn’t invested in yet. But companies like HyperLoop Transportation Technologies have already ensured transportation pods are no longer a blueprint but a reality that’s coming to shape in UAE.  “We are creating the biggest crowdsourcing project in the planet.” Bibop Gresta, Chairman of the company, is in talks with UAE royalty to see how he can get the first project off the ground. But what is unique is his idea of crowdsourcing engineers and professionals who need to work only 10 hours a week for exchange of equity. No wonder he has people from 42 countries who have signed up to work for Gresta’s Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.

Could India be next? There is a proposal with the Indian government. What it does for you and me is Pune-Mumbai in 40 minutes; San Francisco –New York in the same time. And if possible, a journey from New Delhi to New York in half a day? But India still has infrastructural woes.

Gresta says he did plant the idea in the mind of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the US. “It’s more efficient. Not only faster than the bullet train. Bullet train is not a system that can be profitable, it costs too much money, and consumer, more energy.” 

But what about the concerns about what kind of pressure they might be in, while sitting in these pods. Are those exaggerated? “People don’t already know that they are travelling at the speed of sound. We already have airplanes… We are talking of going at 1223 km per hour. The key trick is to accelerate and decelerate in a way that’s not felt…You feel less in hyperloop than in an airplane. We don’t have turbulences It will be smooth and less exciting ride than you think.”

Will our life time have choices outside of planes? Maybe this could be a first realistic start.

Shaili Chopra is an award-winning business journalist and founder of www.golfingindian.com