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Hyperloop pods will be coated in Vibranium. No, really.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has announced a new technology that's going to raise the hackles of Marvel's lawyers. The company, in collaboration with Slovakian materials firm c2i, has created a carbon fiber composite that'll cover the inside and outside of its capsules. The only issue is that some bright spark decided to call this wonder material Vibranium. As in the Wakandan rare earth metal that helps Captain America and Black Panther beat down their foes.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Hyperloop One's public test, and more!
The Hyperloop promises to one day transport passengers at blazing speeds -- and the technology just took a big step forward. This week Hyperloop One launched a cart from 0 to 166 miles per hour in 1.1 seconds in its first public test. In other futuristic transportation news, a European Space Agency incubator just unveiled the world's first flying car capable of vertical takeoff and landing. In Japan, there are now more electric vehicle chargers than gas stations. And researchers in Mexico have developed a new type of glowing cement that could light up dark highways.
Hyperloop One CEO wants us riding in tubes in 2021
The company formerly known as Hyperloop Technologies has had a busy couple of days. It has renamed itself Hyperloop One, announced partnerships with governments and investors, launched a competition and performed a public test of its propulsion system.
Hyperloop One shows off its high-speed propulsion system
North of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert, Hyperloop One is taking a gamble. Specifically, a gamble that flew along a test track and ended in a spray of sand and applause. The company has been working on creating a propulsion system and pods based on a mass-transportation white paper by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Today it tested one of those systems, with co-founder Shervin Peshvar calling it the company's "Kitty Hawk preview."
Hyperloop Technologies gets a new name ahead of propulsion test
The world of Elon Musk-imagined levitating super trains that fly through tubes is finally a little bit less confusing. Today Hyperloop Technologies changed its name to Hyperloop One. The new moniker should help reduce any mix-ups with competing company Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT). More importantly, the company is ready to publicly demo its propulsion system.
Hyperloop taps into government research to float pods
One of the two competing Hyperloop companies has made a major announcement concerning how it's going to make high speed transport a reality. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed a deal with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to harness Inductrack, a form of passive repulsion technology. Traditional MagLev systems require a constant supply of power, adding cost and complexity to most bullet train systems. By comparison, passive repulsion operates with a single series of magnets that can be mounted on each capsule. That's going to make Hyperloop a lot cheaper and easier to maintain, which should hopefully encourage more cities to consider buying one.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: BMW's car of the future, and more!
What if installing solar panels were as easy as rolling out a carpet? That's the promise of the Roll-Array, a powerful, flexible solar system that can be set up in two minutes flat. Meanwhile, Deltec has launched a line of solar-powered prefab homes that start under $100,000, and we spotted an amazing teardrop trailer that can operate completely off-grid thanks to roof-mounted photovoltaics. In other building technology news, Boeing debuted a new self-cleaning airplane bathroom that uses UV light to obliterate germs.
Hyperloop deal would link three European capitals
One of the companies vying to make Elon Musk's transportation dream a reality has signed a deal with the government of Slovakia to explore building a three-country Hyperloop. Crowdsourced engineering project Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) will look into a route that links three European capitals. From Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia, and from Bratislava to Budapest, Hungary.
Dear Veronica: Death by Hyperloop?
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-204723{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-204723, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-204723{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-204723").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Ah, the Hyperloop. Transportation of the future. But at what cost? On today's show, Daniel Cooper of Engadget joins us to explain how we will fly at speeds upwards of 750MPH and not be squished like a pancake. Read his Hyperloop story! In Apple stuff, we show off one viewer's smart use of an old iPad, and I share my feelings on the Apple / FBI case. Keep sending those questions in using the hashtag #DearVeronica! Subscribe in iTunes, RSS or YouTube!
Inhabitat's Week in Green: VW's microbus concept, and more!
Volkswagen is still reeling from the Dieselgate emissions scandal, but it's trying to turn over a new leaf. So far the automaker has announced plans to launch 20 electric vehicles by the year 2020, and this week we learned that the BUDD-e electric microbus will be one of them. In other transportation news, a team of MIT students took top place in Elon Musk's Hyperloop design contest with plans for a streamlined pod that uses maglev technology. Uganda launched its first solar bus, and Google wants to bring 5G internet to off-grid areas with fleets of sun-powered drones.
A closer look at the vehicles designed for the Hyperloop Pod competition
Trains in the US are slow and boring. They may have brought this country together over 100 years ago, but unless you're commuting, when we think about spanning long distances, we look to the sky. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks there's a better way: a return to the Earth and the rails. Well, actually, just one rail and a very long tube. The Hyperloop -- an idea he dropped on the world back in August 2013 -- is why 120 teams of college and high school students gathered at Texas A&M this weekend in a competition to build the best vehicles to ride those tubes. Here's a closer look at what they came up with.
MIT students win Hyperloop pod design competition
Crews are already building the first Hyperloop tracks, but how about the vehicles to run on those tracks? Don't worry, they're coming soon: MIT has won a SpaceX competition that challenged students worldwide to design a pod for the ultra-fast tube transportation. The school's team gets to build a vehicle that will run on a yet-to-be-built test track near SpaceX's California headquarters. Not that some of its rivals will be left out, mind you. All told, at least 22 teams will advance to the next round and eventually build pods. There could even be as many as 10 more, if further judging deems others to be worthy.
What you need to know about Hyperloop
Elon Musk has a plan for humanity that covers clean energy, electric cars and spreading out amongst the stars. The billionaire also wants to do away with the tired and slow railways of the past in favor of pushing people around like parcels in a mail tube. That's what Hyperloop is: a series of vacuum tubes that'll enable travelers to get from A to B in minutes rather than hours. But Musk himself didn't have the time to develop the concept beyond his original idea, so in 2013 he open-sourced the project for anyone to have a go. Less than three years later, the first strides toward a global network of near-supersonic travel tubes are being taken.
The first working Hyperloop could arrive by the end of 2016
Rob Lloyd, the recently minted CEO of Hyperloop Technologies, believes that his firm will have a fully working test loop ready for the end of the year. The executive is here at CES to oversee the breaking ground on the facility, which is being constructed on the outskirts of Las Vegas. If things go according to plan, the two-mile track is expected to be ready for passengers to try out before the end of the holidays. We sat down with Lloyd to talk about the past, present and future of Hyperloop in this wide-ranging interview with Engadget.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: artificial leaves and green roofs
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Silicon Valley is a hotbed for technology, but it will soon be known for green building as well. Last week architects unveiled plans to build the world's largest green roof just down the street from Apple's spaceship campus. In other architecture and design news, Sky Greens has developed a hydraulic vertical farm that can grow 10 times more produce than a traditional farm, and Caltrans proposed the largest wildlife overpass in the US for Los Angeles' 101 freeway. As much as we love to celebrate good examples of architecture, there's also fun to be had in panning bad ones -- this past week, London's "death ray" "walkie talkie" skyscraper was crowned the worst building in Britain. Summer is winding down, but there's still time for one last road trip -- and this tiny camper that telescopes to three times its size is the coolest RV we've ever seen.
Hyperloop gets a little closer to reality
One of the firms competing to turn Elon Musk's tube-based alternative to high-speed rail has taken a small step towards making it a reality. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed deals with vacuum pump business Oerlikon Leybold, engineers Aecom and the architectural business Hodgetts+Fung. As with all of HTT's deals, these firms will offer their expertise in exchange for stock options in the hope that the company will become successful further down the line. The latter two won't have much to offer just yet, but the first one has already started work on the project.
Mythbusting with 'Mr. Hyperloop'
Dirk Ahlborn is two hours behind schedule, and it's no surprise, since the project that he represents has the potential to change the world. He's the CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, one of the firms that's dedicated to building those high-speed tubes people of the future are always traveling in. It's got so much potential that you can even see hope in the eyes of the people standing in his presence, waiting for their turn to speak to the German. You might have heard that Elon Musk dreamed up this idea, but it's Ahlborn who's most likely to make it a reality. Say hello to Mr. Hyperloop.
SpaceX hosts competition for the best Hyperloop pod design
While a few private companies are hard at work developing a commercial version of Elon Musk's Hyperloop concept, SpaceX is hosting a pod design competition. Intended for students and independent engineering teams, the challenge is to construct a human-scale pod concept that could be used for the high-speed transportation system. Competing teams will not only build a full-sized version of a people mover, but they'll put the pods through their paces on a one-mile test track at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California next summer. Before the test vehicles are built, the company will host a design weekend at Texas A&M University in January where design teams will have a chance to meet with SpaceX officials before moving forward.
Hyperloop might be 'free to play'
We're all expecting to pay through the nose to travel between LA and SF in just 30 minutes, but the minds behind Hyperloop may have a surprise up their sleeve. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies' Dirk Ahlborn has told CNBC that he's considering a business model that apes what we see in free-to-play mobile games. The CEO is kicking around the idea that the travel itself would either be free or dirt cheap, with passengers charged for a series of as-yet undisclosed upgrades. Of course, since we're still a decade or more away from a commercial version of the system, there's plenty of time for him to change his mind.
Daily Roundup: Net neutrality wins, digital brothels and more!
In today's news, the FCC approved its net neutrality plan, a "digital brothel" lets people have sex through the internet and Pebble smashes its own crowdfunding records. Read about all the top stories in today's Daily Roundup.
