Virgin Hyperloop tests first passenger voyage in Nevada

The Virgin Hyperloop announced Sunday that humans have traveled at low speeds in its superfast vacuum tube for the first time.

The future transportation system, which involves firing a pod through a low-pressure tunnel, was tested by the company’s chief technical officer Josh Keegel and passenger experience director Sarah Lucian.

On Sunday afternoon, they traveled 500 meters in 15 seconds at a test site outside Las Vegas, where the company had already completed more than 400 tests.

They reached speeds of 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour), which is one way out of the 1,000km speed the company wants to achieve, but it marks a significant step for Hyperloop fans. By comparison, there are magnetic levitation trains running at 268 mph between Shanghai and Pudong airports in China.

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, said in a statement: “With today’s successful experiment, we have shown that the spirit of this discovery will truly change the way people live, work and travel everywhere in the years to come.”

The hyperloop uses electric impulse and electromagnetic levittan near the vacuum.

In 2013, Tesla founder Elon Musk said it would allow traveling from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 30 minutes. At the time, many said the idea would be science fiction.

Other companies are also competing to create the Hyperloop concept, but Virgin Hyperloop is the only company that has successfully tested the technology with passengers.

“When we started in a garage six years ago, the goal was easy – to change the way people move,” said Keegel, co-founder of Virgin Hyperloop. “Today, we took a giant leap towards that ultimate dream, not only for me, but for all of us who look toward a moonlight on Earth.”

Although the scaled-back test is a step towards making the hyperloop a reality, it is not yet clear whether the concept is safe at full speed.

Raising more than $ 400 million from investors, including the Virgin Group, the Virgin Hyperloop claims that the mode of transport will be faster, safer, cheaper and more stable than current modes of transport.