South Korea wants its own Hyperloop for high-speed transit

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed a deal to codevelop the future of transit with South Korea. The partnership will see the company working with both the local government, its institute of civil engineering, and Hanyang University. The group will research all aspects of Hyperloop technology, from the tubes themselves through to developing safety regulations determining its use.

That's not the only news to emerge from the world of Hyperloops either, with Canadian company TransPod signing a deal with Liebherr Aerospace. The latter business designs systems for the aviation industry, amongst other things, and will help TransPod design the thermal systems for its pod. Presumably the pair are concerned about how hot Hyperloop pods would get while in transit.

Recently, too, Hyperloop One threw out a suggestion that it may build its German Hyperloop above the country's autobahn network. The tube could, theoretically, connect the country's major cities, from Hamburg and Berlin in the north, through to Munich and Stuttgart in the south. A solar roof above the tubes would provide around 7,000,000 MW/year of energy, which could theoretically power the entire loop itself.

The fact that so many countries, from France through to South Korea, are all interested in the Hyperloop bodes well. After all, the international competition may be enough to ensure we get to zoom around in tubes soon, or else plenty of nations will be made to look pretty silly.