Hyperloop One
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| Industry | High-speed rail |
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| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, Calif. |
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Key people
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Number of employees
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280 (Q2 2017) |
| Website | hyperloop-one |
Hyperloop One, previously known as Hyperloop Technologies, is a company in Los Angeles, California, that is working to commercialize the Hyperloop for moving passengers and/or cargo at airline speeds at a fraction of the cost of air travel. The concept of Hyperloop transportation was introduced and named by Elon Musk in August 2013, although he is not involved with Hyperloop One.
The Hyperloop uses a linear electric motor to accelerate and decelerate an electromagnetically levitated pod through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle will glide silently for miles at speeds up to 670 mph (1080km/h) with no turbulence. The system is designed to be entirely autonomous, quiet, direct-to-destination, and on-demand. Additionally, as Hyperloop is built on columns or tunneled underground, it eliminates the dangers of at-grade crossings and requires much smaller rights of way than high-speed rail or a highway. Hyperloop One has made substantive technical changes to Musk's initial proposal and chose not to pursue the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route that Musk envisioned in his 2013 white paper.
The company has raised $160 million and demonstrated a form of propulsion technology in May 2016 at its test site north of Las Vegas Hyperloop One has completed a 500m Development Loop (DevLoop) in North Las Vegas and just after midnight on May 12, 2017, the company held its first full-scale Hyperloop test, becoming the first company in the world to test a full-scale Hyperloop. The test combined Hyperloop components including vacuum, propulsion, levitation, sled, control systems, tube, and structures.
Hyperloop One is currently developing passenger and cargo system routes in the United States, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates. It is also in early talks with Indian government to build one in India. Its publicly stated goal is to deliver a fully operational Hyperloop system by 2021.
The idea for Hyperloop One emerged from a conversation between Elon Musk and Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, who were flying to Cuba in January 2013 on a humanitarian mission. Pishevar asked Musk to elaborate on his Hyperloop idea, which the industrialist had been mulling for some time. Pishevar suggested using it for cargo, an idea Musk hadn’t considered, but he did say he was considering open-sourcing the concept because he was too busy running SpaceX and Tesla. Pishevar asked Musk if he could build it and Musk said, “yes.”
In August 2013, Musk released the Hyperloop Alpha white paper, generating widespread attention and enthusiasm. In the months that followed Pishevar incorporated Hyperloop Technologies and recruited the first board members including David O. Sacks, Jim Messina and Joe Lonsdale. Pishevar also recruited a cofounder, a former SpaceX engineer named Brogan Bambrogan. Hyperloop Technologies set up shop in Bambrogan’s garage in L.A. in November 2014. By January 2015 Hyperloop Tech had grown big enough to move into its current campus in the Los Angeles Arts District and had raised $9 million in venture capital from Pishevar's Sherpa Capital and investors such as Formation 8 and Zhen Fund. FORBES magazine put Hyperloop Tech on its February 2015 cover, landing the startup lots of fresh recruits and new investor interest. In June 2015, Pishevar recruited former Cisco president Rob Lloyd as an investor and, eventually, its CEO.
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