Billionaire industrialist Elon Musk's fantastical "Hyperloop" mass transit system, revealed last year as a potential alternative to high-speed railways, may actually get itself built. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, a company dedicated to making the tube-based transport a reality (but not associated with Musk), revealed dozens of designs and schematics Thursday in an effort to drum up enthusiasm (and funding) for its futuristic scheme. The plan is to crowdsource as many aspects as possible, offering qualified individuals stock in the new company in exchange for helping design the system. Promise of a future payoff is no way to build a multibillion-dollar endeavor, of course, but with luck investors will bring money once they see the Hyperloop is more than a concept.
With over a hundred engineers and designers contributing already, the Hyperloop project looks well underway at least for consideration, and possibly even construction within ten years, the company speculates. The specs set forth in the whitepaper are only preliminary, though, and very much subject to change. "One idea leads to the next," it reads, "and with a project as new and gigantic as building the Hyperloop will be the only way we’re going to find the correct solutions is by keeping an open mind."
IN-DEPTH
- Hyperloop revealed: Elon Musk foresees rapid transit in a tube
- Hyperloop sounds crazy ... but simulation says it just might work
- Startup sets sights on rapid transit Hyperloop prototype by 2015