02x02 - Hyperloop

[bunniefuu]

[intro music]

We wanted the ability to build something

that nobody had ever conceived of before.

Like everybody knows a car has four wheels,

an airplane has wings,

but what does a Hyperloop have?

Right. Hyperloop could
have anything we imagine.

The idea of being able
to take what is the best

feature of some of the other modes,

keep them get rid of all the other aspects,

make something sustainable,

make something long
term that truly redefines

the way that we move.

I would sign up for that a 1000 times

out of 500. [laughs]

[upbeat music]

A global technological
revolution is underway.

We think in the next 10 years, you'll see

more innovation than
we've seen in the past 50.

Driven, by passionate,
dedicated individuals,

intent on shaping a new world.

I wanna create something new.

I want to create something that gives me

the sense of creating new life.

This is why I'm here.

A greener world.

This is the last call to action that we

have to develop the solutions

that are protecting our planet.

A better world.

I have a family and when I think

about the life I want them to have

and their children to have,

I want them to experience
the world where they

can travel and live without worry.

And that gets me up and going every day.

Together, they are pushing engineering

to its limits.

Human creativity is the
most tremendous power.

And if you set target things that you

never thought possible, become possible.

Creating extraordinary
machines that can help

the planet and humankind in the future.

In April, 2018, two dozen large steel tubes

were fabricated in Spain.

Then trucked across the border to France.

We were thrilled to
see this coming to life.

So we were literally
driving behind the trucks.

These oversized load
trucks with the four meter

in diameter tube.

In Toulouse, in Southern France,

the tubes were assembled into a test track.

After years of dreaming
about it, drawing it,

talking about it, engineering it.

To see it finally come together was really

something that was extraordinary for us,

for the team and I think
for the world as well.

Rob Miller works at Hyperloop TT.

One of several companies
developing an entirely

new way to travel.

It's called Hyperloop
and works by propelling

levitating vehicles rapidly through tubes

carrying passengers or cargo.

The capsules can travel between cities

and countries that are currently

many hours apart, in a matter of minutes.

We call Hyperloop of fifth mode

of transportation, the safe, fast,

more sustainable form that uses

a lack of friction and
a lack of drag for us

to travel in capsules
and tubes at high speeds.

The race to build a Hyperloop was triggered

by a famous billionaire who doesn't shy

away from big engineering challenges.

He announced the idea during an online chat

show in 2012.

I have a name for it.

Name for it, which is called the Hyperloop.

The Hyperloop?

Hyperloop. Yeah.

Is it like a Jetson's tunnel?

It's something like that. Yeah.

It goes about, let's say an average speed

of twice what an aircraft would do.

So you go from downtown LA

to downtown San Francisco
in under 30 minutes.

Anyways, so that's.

Do you think this is possible?

This is not just?

Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely. Yeah.

The following year he
published a white paper

with a detailed proposal
called Hyperloop Alpha.

So the design proposed in the Alpha paper

is essentially tube travel.

Low pressure systems to eliminate drag.

And at that time, Elon Musk said in public

that this was something
that needed to get done.

He was a little bit too busy.

So he opened source
the white paper and said,

anyone who's out there who wants to give

this a try, please feel free.

The idea inspired
engineers around the globe.

Here was a chance to solve one

of the world's biggest problems.

The rapidly growing carbon emissions

from transportation.

While allowing faster travel than ever.

Hyperloop offered a way
to move people and goods

in less time plane, with
a convenience of a train

and with potentially zero carbon emissions.

If we can bring airplane
speeds to the ground

sustainably and safely,
what Hyperloop does,

it'd be a real benefit to society.

The engineering challenges are immense

and it will be many years before

a paying passenger
steps on the first Hyperloop,

but the rewards could be enormous.

One study suggests a nationwide Hyperloop

could boost America's
GDP alone by $200 billion.

The race had begun to
prove this transformational

technology was even possible.

The first company off the blocks,

was Hyperloop TT.

Two weeks after the
white paper was launched,

we put out a call to action

for engineers around the world.

And we had this overwhelming
response of not just

anybody, of engineers and technologists

that had already done amazing things.

Everything from the CERN
Large Hadron Collider

to the Manhattan project.

So it was this incredible team and we

chose 100 engineers to work on this.

Work on the feasibility,
to see if the Hyperloop,

this Hyperloop thing was actually possible.

The conclusion we was that this is not

only feasible, but it can
be done with technology

that exists today.

The company set out to design and construct

a revolutionary new transportation system.

As well as the tube.

They've built a prototype capsule

that can carry up to 50 passengers.

But for a Hyperloop
pod like this to reach ultra

high speeds, they need
to address the factors

that slow down other kinds of vehicles.

Drag from air resistance
and friction caused

by contact between wheels and the ground.

The team's first challenge

was to eliminate friction.

Floating trains called maglev

already exist in China and Japan.

But their powerful electromagnets require

a huge amount of
electricity making them fast,

but expensive and
energy intensive to operate.

So Hyperloop TT are
developing a next generation

maglev that can ate without the need

for any extra power at all.

The secret source of our passive magnetic

levitation system is a hall back array.

And what a hall back array is a series

of permanent magnets
arranged in a certain way.

Almost like a cheat code on a video game.

Up, down, left, right left, right.

Once if you arrange it a certain way,

you get a enhanced and
directed magnetic field.

When a whole back array moves over

an aluminum track,
the strong magnetic field

indices electrical
current inside the metal.

And that turns the track temporarily

into an opposing magnet.

The repulsive force lifts
the magnets up by over

an inch, along with a capsule.

The team have also installed vacuum pumps

to remove 99.9% of the air inside the tube,

reducing air resistance to almost nothing.

Together with a levitation Hyperloop TT,

believe this will allow
them to reach speeds

of up to 760 miles per hour.

And the Hyperloop will not only be fast,

but extremely efficient.

You almost completely reduce friction,

you almost completely reduce drag.

So once you're up to speed, you'll still

be traveling without any energy use.

It's for us, it's as close
to perpetual motion

as you can get.

The US department for
transportation estimates

that Hyperloop roots
could be up to six times

more energy efficient

than aircraft on short routes.

That means a much smaller carbon footprint

and the power it does use
can be clean and green.

We're fully electric and we're

fully emissions free.

So building a propulsion system,

it's a must that the
caps will be all electric.

And our system is that today.

Hyperloop TT are still
preparing to demonstrate

system in France.

But thousands of miles away, Hyperloop pods

have been flying through
a tube for some time.

Two years after his white paper,

Elon Musk had a scale down Hyperloop track

built at SpaceX HQ in California.

Six feet wide and three
quarters of a mile long.

Then he put on a contest for students

to design build and race
the best miniature pod.

What this is really intended to do is to

encourage innovation
in transport technology.

And I think we'll find that it's way more

incredible than we ever realized.

And then later today,

we'll see how fast the pods can go.

So congrats to everyone.

Amazed at what the student teams have done,

really it's blown my mind

and may the best team win. Yeah.

[crowd cheering]

Over a thousand teams
entered with 30 finalists

selected for the competition weekend.

One of them was from
the university of Delft

in the Netherlands.

Including mechanical engineering student,

Tim Houter.

When we got to hear about the concept,

we already thought that it was something

that could completely change the world

in terms of mobility.

But also in terms of sustainability

and that we also really

like engineering challenges.

So when the competition came along,

we didn't have to think in order

to also set up a team.

And it was a really
intense period because you

need to achieve very
high technical standard

in a really short amount of time.

So together with that whole team,

it was basically 20% of
work where some people

also continued to work during the nights

to make sure that we met our deadlines

and that we could unveil our

Hyperloop prototype on time.

The different categories that we

could score points for were the efficiency

of your vehicle, the safety, the costs,

but also the speed that
you were able to achieve.

And we took all those criteria into account

and designed a vehicle that would have

the highest overall
score on the combination

of all these aspects.

The team finally unveiled their design

in June, 2016.

[crowd clapping]

For one of the dummy passengers.

We called him Elon referring to Elon Musk,

of course. [laughs]

Once in California, the teams had to pass

a series of challenges to qualify

for the last stage.

Operating in a vacuum, being propelled

along an open air track and moving through

the tube at normal pressure.

Only if you have passed those tests,

we were allowed to
proceed towards the final test

run that would then eventually determine

the winner of the Hyperloop competition.

Only three teams
qualified for the final run

in the depressurized tube.

When we had the
confirmation that we were one

of those, that's of course,
an amazing feeling.

And only makes you more
excited to kind of really

give it as much as
you can for that final run

and go for the win.

Everything was set, but
as the team carried out

the last checks, there
was an unexpected issue.

When we were almost
ready, we actually noticed

the malfunction of the breaking system.

And it was quite a terrifying
moment because your

breaking system needs to work, of course.

Before you can do your final run.

They hurried into the tube to investigate.

So you cannot wait too long

before you do your run.

Otherwise you need to get out of the tube

and make room for another team.

So the pressure was
really hard to have it fixed.

After a few minutes, they
figured out the problem.

Luckily, we got it fixed

while it was standing there,

but it was quite a, yeah,

quite an exciting moment.

The speed to beat was


or 58 miles per hour.

Clocked earlier by team WARR from Germany,

Nowhere near as fast as Elon Musk

had in mind for a future Hyperloop,

but still a challenge
in a short vacuum tube.

We're gonna start the countdown right now.

They said that they're basically ready

and we're excited to see how it goes.



[crowd cheering]

There is this very sort of tense moment,

but then you'll see that everything

is going smoothly and vehicles getting up

to speed in the way that was good.

[crowd cheering]

Delft Hyperloop had matched the to speed.

They also scored highly in other categories

from design to safety.

The team with the highest score,

in sum of all of the other categories

and that is, it's Delft.

[crowd cheering]

That was really amazing.

Everybody was extremely in excitement

and cheering and hugging each other.

It was really great.

[crowd cheering]

Team Delft were world Hyperloop champions.

Some of the team decided
to take the next step

to launch a company and
develop a full Hyperloop

system with a new pod and new track.

We thought, well, that
is potentially so huge.

And we've built up such a momentum.

Shouldn't we proceed with it

and make it a reality in the real world.

Tim Houter is now CEO of HARDT Hyperloop.

After the competition,
he and his colleagues

faced a new challenge.

To travel through a network of tubes

that connect many cities, their new design

would need to be able to switch lanes.

Something no one had done before.

The hyper tube that was built by SpaceX

for Elon Musk, Hyperloop
competition only allowed

you to go straight, but
didn't have the ability

to take corners or to
perform this lane switch.

So we need to do some
tweaks on the Hyperloop

concept that we had
made for the competition.

The obvious solution would be to design

a system similar to a railroad switch,

which has a moving
pair of rails called points.

Even existing maglev
tracks, physically shift

when trains need to change lines.

But for Hyperloop, the team realized

that mechanical switches would be too slow.

One of our core objectives was to have

to perform a lane switch without any moving

components in the infrastructure,

which enables this high speed.

To switch lanes with no moving parts.

The team needed a new approach.

First, they designed
the pod to be suspended

from above rather than from below.

But that means the pod must levitate with

an attractive magnetic force instead

of a repulsive one, like
the whole back array.

And this presents a challenge.

We have a magnetic levitation system

that means that we have a steel track

on the top and a magnet on the vehicle.

And if I bring it to the close it'll stick,

and if I bring it too far
away, it will fall away.

So we'll try and be in an equilibrium state

where the magnet is not falling,

but also not attracting.

Engineer Gert Spek was part of the team

that built a small scale
levitation rig to see

if they could keep the
system in equilibrium.

So we found a way to
alter the magnetic field

as we can demonstrate on our test lab.

It will slowly lift up.

We have a laser sensor here that measures

the distance 2000 times a second,

and feeds this back
into the control system.

The laser sensor works in tandem

with the magnets, which have copper wire

wrapped around them.

This allows the control system to boost

or reduce the strength of the magnets,

depending on the distance
measured by the lasers.

And this keeps the floating pod

in exactly the right place.

When I try to push it down,

it will give a little bit,
it bounce back up.

Same way if I push it up,

it will weaken the magnetic field

and then fall back down.

The laser sensor and adjustable magnets

stabilize the levitation system.

But if it adjusts for
every bump in the track,

the ride could get
uncomfortable for passengers.

So in February, 2021 lead engineer

Youssef Harfouch, set up a system

to simulate traveling
at 450 miles per hour.

A question that we often get is whether

it'll be a bumping ride for passengers

on board of Hyperloop vehicles.

Especially at high speeds, when the vehicle

is traveling a few hundred
meters every second,

in an infrastructure that cannot possibly

be completely straight.

In this setup, a Hyperloop
vehicle is simulated

by having both a levitating magnet,

as well as a hanging weight underneath

mimicking the cabins weight.

By placing the
construction in the vibration

table, we've simulated a situation

where the vehicle is passing

an irregular infrastructure at high speeds.

The control system is designed

to intelligently smooth out

any bumps in the track.

But as the vibrations reached full speed,

it wasn't responding as the team expected.

The first time we ran the test,

it was not going perfectly smooth.

There was a part of the shaker table

that wasn't behaving
the way we simulated it.

The team analyzed the data and adjusted

the control system before trying again.

This time they turned the vibrations

up to the max.

And what we see here is that indeed,

the vibrations do not affect the vehicle

or the stability of the overall system.

Well, it was a great moment of success

because we saw that the system,

even though we were pushing it,

the envelope way beyond what we

expect in a real life Hyperloop system,

it was hanging perfectly still in mid-air.

Even though the shaker table was moving up

and down a lot.

To make sure the whole
system worked together.

HARDT built a short full width test track

with steel strips on the sides.

The capsule is suspended from above,

which means electromagnets can easily pull

the capsule left or right

towards one of the strips.

By June, 2019, the team were ready

to test the full setup.

Levitation in 3, 2, 1.

Levitation successful.

Youssef, propulsion?

Propulsion, good to go.



[upbeat music]

Yes. Propulsion successful

Switch in 3, 2, 1.

Switch take and switch successful.

We have successful switch.

[crowd cheering]

Public affairs lead
Juliette de la Rie knows

the benefits of the switching technology.

This is actually the first ever developed

and patented Hyperloop lane switch.

The system allows you to act more

or less like a highway.

There is no contact between components.

And so there is no where and tear.

A vehicle can just easily choose its own

destination and without
any moving components,

this mean that we vehicles can follow up

on each other quite
easily in short time slot.

So this can increase
your capacity massively.

HARDT's test track proves that Hyperloop

capsules could one day navigate their way

through a network of tubes.

But their tube is much too short to reach

the speeds that Hyperloop promises.

However, back in America, another company

is setting out to prove for the first time

that a pod can be
propelled along a full scale

track at high speed,

and that it's safe for passengers.

In January, 2017, their
team were assembling

the world's longest full width Hyperloop

tube at 1,600 feet.

Still not long enough to accelerate up

to aircraft speeds, but potentially enough

to surpass high speed rail.

The nice thing about doing something

that nobody has ever
done before, is that nobody

can tell you how to do it. [laughs]

However that's also a curse is that nobody

can tell you how to do it.

So we learned, we tried different things.

We made plenty of mistakes,

but we also learned how to do

things quite a bit faster.

Like at the beginning we could only install

maybe one or two feet of track per day.

By the end, we were installing, you know,



And that was all because we were learning

about the process.

Josh Geigel is co-founder
of Virgin Hyperloop.

Having previously worked
at SpaceX, Josh read

the Hyperloop paper by Elon Musk in 2013.

My initial read was like, this feels

like a little bit of a crazy idea.

And, you know, there was
some mathematical errors

in it that I jabbed my friends about.

And shortly after that, I decided to look

at that with a future colleague

and the idea of tackling a new idea

in transportation really became powerful.

The ability to it's something that nobody

had ever conceived of before.

Like everybody knows a car has four wheels,

an airplane has wings,

but what does a Hyperloop have?

A Hyperloop could have anything we imagine.

So we started out in a garage

in north Los Angeles in November, of 2014.

And the goal at that time was how quickly

could we build a prototype,

a piece of technology to show

this idea was even feasible.

And that's what we really set out to do,

is like let's figure out what we can build

to demonstrate that a
Hyperloop is even possible.

We looked at a lot of different places

for a test track.

And Las Vegas is pretty
close to Los Angeles

and we picked the desert.

We would get down to about zero

or minus five Fahrenheit in the winter,

which was pretty cold.

And then in the summer it'd be about 120,



The extreme swings in
temperature would cause

the steel track to expand

and contract by over a foot.

So the tube could only
be fixed in one place.

Along its length, the team installed rings

to allow for expansion.

And by elevating the tube above the ground,

the Hyperloop track should less impact

on wildlife and the environment

than a conventional rail line.

By March, 2017, despite
the challenging weather,

the team were building the test site

at a phenomenal rate.

Today, they actually started commissioning

the vacuum tent for
the first time this week.

And this is where we actually create

the low pressure
environment inside the tube.

So this big setup you see is our

actual vacuum system.

So we have a number of blowers pumps

here at the top and they come in,

they suck through these eight pumps.

They come through these two

and they eventually go through these four.

The pumps reduce the
air pressure in the tube

to the equivalent of


almost six times the
cruising height of airliners.

So if you can see right now,

they're actually installing
the control system

for this particular pump.

And this is the first time they're

actually doing this.

So it's pretty exciting day today.

Reducing air resistance is a key step

to towards achieving high speeds.

But another critical
factor is the propulsion

system itself that will
be fitted inside the tube.

So these are part of our motor system.

These are copper coils
that we had the design

to actually create the propulsion wave

that the vehicle would follow down.

So when we built our facility,

we needed about 3,000
of these individual coils.

The coils will be lined up

along the middle of the track,

where they can interact
with magnets on the pod,

adjusting the flow of electricity through

the coils creates
different magnetic fields.

Those in front, pull the pod towards it.

While those behind push it away.

This pattern continues along the track.

Speeding up as the pod gets faster.

You basically send this electrical wave

down the tube, just like
a surfer riding a wave.

A surfer likes to stay
at the top of the wave

so that he gets propulsion.

So you're trying to
synchronize those two fields,

get up to whatever
speed you're trying to go.

Alongside all the track components,

yet another team are
hard at work on the capsule

to travel inside it.

Including structural engineering manager,

Helen Durden.

First they're building a sled which will

eventually form the chassis of the capsule,

but building a vehicle that's so new

and untested poses a unique challenge.

What's been interesting
is we start not knowing

very much what it's gonna wind up being.

Like every other job I've had

it was spacecraft aircraft.

You have a lot of very well

documented solid standards.

For this one, we went through all of it

and got to pull what we think fits best.

Cause this is somewhere between a car

and a train and a plane

and maybe not a spacecraft,

but NASA is really good open source docs.

So we like to pull from those too.

So that's the very unique thing with this,

is really starting from scratch.

Once ready, the sled will be used to test

the whole system for the first time.

There's always something pretty magical

about seeing this design that it's always

on my computer screen every day.

I've actually seen it now here in aluminum

and steel and welds and bolts.

It's something, like for
me, that's still a rush.

By May, 2017, just 12 months after starting

construction enough of the track and sled

we're ready to test the overall Hyperloop.

The individual components
had all been shown

to work on their own, but this would be

the first time everything came together.

So it'd be one thing to build all these

individual pieces of technology in the lab.

Is something completely
different when you bring

it all together and have
to integrate the system.

That level of risk with system integration,

with the complexity that exists there,

is really big.

Tube, confirm ready for test.

Fire VFD and announcement test complete.

Fire in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Fire.

The whole vehicle lifted off.

It was on magnetic levitation.

It was using our propulsion system.

[crowd cheering]

That first test didn't go very far.

It went, it run about 10, 15 meters

or so about 30 feet.

But be there with the
group who put their blood,

sweat and tears and
actually making this happen

and see the elation on
their face was something

I'm never, ever, ever, ever gonna forget.

They'd proved that the technology works

albeit at a leisurely 17 miles per hour.

Next they needed to
push the system to its limits

and demonstrate that
Hyperloop really could be

the fastest way to travel over ground.



Fire.

The goals of the test after that were

to go further and faster.

There was a Saturday in July of 2017,

where one of the most exciting days,

if not the most exciting
day of testing ever had.

We were just going faster and faster

about every two hours.

We would run a new
test, a new test, a new test,

and you know, every test would go

about 20 miles an hour faster.

The first time we got up to speed,

I was just curled up in
fetal position on a chair

like so terrified then it worked.

It was pretty awesome.

Top speed we ultimately got up to was about




Which is faster than a normal speed

or high speed rail.

So we were able to do
that very successfully,

very quickly and show that this could work.

The team had shown that Hyperloop

could be faster than high speed rail,

even with only a third of a mile

to get up to speed.

Next they need did to show it

was safe for passengers.

First, they had to build
the shell of an actual

capsule on top of the metal chassis.

This prototype pod would
never carry passengers

itself, but would take the team

one step closer to that milestone.

We put this big shell on the outside

and that completely changed

the characteristics of the vehicle.

And so once we did this, we had to relearn

how to control the vehicle.

So with that vehicle, we got up to speed.

We learned about the
aerodynamics, even though

there's not a lot of air
in the tubes to ensure

that this could actually work.

With the system now finally tuned,

the engineers could start work

on the passenger carrying pod itself.

The main challenge was
to design a pressurized

capsule that could withstand
a vacuum equivalent

to being near the edge of space.

The next one actually needed

to be a vessel safe for humans.

So we started from scratch, built basically

from the ground up a vehicle that could

essentially fly at 200,000 feet altitude.

I mean, we built a spaceship.

Over the course of about a year and a half,

we got it certified.

We got it independently assessed to be safe

so that myself and one of my colleagues,

Sara could ride in it.

By in November, 2020, the capsule was ready

for the world's first
passenger Hyperloop ride.

I knew I had to be the first one.

Starting this company,
if it wasn't gonna be safe

enough for me, wasn't gonna be

safe enough for anybody.

It was way more excitement than nervous.

And the excitement was to be sitting

in essentially an idea.

There we were.

We were sitting in a Hyperloop

that was kind of concepted on a whiteboard

that you'd seen through ups and downs.

You had nurtured, you had grown,

you had cried over,
you'd done everything over

and here you were in the moment of like

the most monumentous day in the history

of the company showing that it could work.



Launch.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

You feel this force, this acceleration.

In this case adds a little bit harder

than normal, but it would be about like

a performance sports car.

It's about 0.6, 0.7 Gs or so,

pushes you back into your seat.

System gets up on the levitation.

It was smooth.

It was kind of unlike anything

that I'd ever experienced before.

That was so good.

That was awesome.

[both laughing]

Oh my, that was awesome.

Awesome.

[crowd cheering]

The pride the understanding
of just how hard

it was to get here was something that was,

it was humbling to say the least.

To be able to even ride
at something that you've

created in a new mode of transportation

with everybody watching and safe

and it was surreal.

But despite reaching this huge milestone,

Josh now faced a setback.

The next step would be
to build an even longer

track capable of reaching
true Hyperloop speeds.

But when they ran the calculations,

it became clear that the technology used

in Nevada would not be economical

over greater distances.

In the same way, you
know, Edison discovered



We discovered a lot of things that we

shouldn't make a Hyperloop like this.

And so we had to restitute, rearchitect our

system to ensure that we could get

to a price point that would allow us

to deploy systems all over the world.

Building and maintaining the infrastructure

to power the propulsion along hundreds

of miles of tube would be too costly.

One estimate for a Californian Hyperloop

suggested price could reach

over $100 million per mile.

And as technology
inevitably improves, it'll be

a huge job to upgrade the entire network.

To make Hyperloop a success,

Josh needed a new approach.

Then he was struck by inspiration.

I was actually riding up one of my favorite

hills in the Santa Monica
mountains on my bike.

And I saw this old 1933 Ford Roadster

coming around a bend.

And I was thinking that isn't it crazy

that car's almost a hundred years old

and still driving on the road

that we're driving on today.

It's a really powerful concept

that's what's allowed us to see roads

proliferate all over the world.

And so what we wanna
do is create that same type

of opportunity for Hyperloop,

where we would have a
dumb tube in a smart pod.

So a pod a hundred
years from now would able

to go into a tube that we build today,

is a really big idea.

It's something that ensures that what we

build today, won't become obsolete

as new technology evolves.

It will be able to
incorporate new technology,

upgrade and ultimately be still relevant

in a world where in a world of technology,

we can't even imagine.

Instead of installing miles of coils,

along the track for the propulsion system,

Josh plans to design a pod

that could propel itself.

Making the tube much simpler

and cheaper to install.

But before building
another full scale system,

he needs his team
check it works efficiently.

If I gave you the analogy that a hamster,

you could let have a very big cage to run

long distances and get his exercise.

That's a way to do it, it's expensive.

The other way is to
put a little wheel inside

like a treadmill, so that hamster can get

his workout by running on the treadmill.

And so we took this approach that it,

if we build something like a treadmill,

something like a wheel that would spin

to simulate the track, moving that we

can actually gain a lot more from our test.

A lot cheaper, a lot faster than if we

built hundreds of yards of this tube.

Today engineers, Bunaama Diagne

and Ju Hyung Kim are
measuring the efficiency

of the new propulsion system.

The wheel represents the track

and the electric motor,

which will make the
wheel spin is underneath.

The motor will eventually be on the pod.

To simulate a Hyperloop,
the wheel must spin

so fast that the test rig has been placed

within a bunker for safety.

In case any parts fly off.

Okay, set.

So it's currently spinning
basically simulating

the motion of the motor, which is a part

of the propulsion system

that we are actually testing.

Today, they're doing a low speed test.

The motor is spinning the wheel at 400 RPM,

the equivalent of 110 miles per hour.

We are measuring how much power

is going into the motor and how much torque

is applied to the wheel.

Then we can calculate how much power

has been lost and how much energy

has been actually
transferred to the motion.

As a comparison, combustion engines

are typically around 30% efficient.

Josh needs this electric
motor to be much more.

Stop recording.

Okay.

Recording stopped.

At 400 RPM, the motor was 80% efficient.

As the speed increases to 2,000 RPM

or 550 miles per hour.

The team expect to reach over 90%.

And unlike fuel burning engines,

they can recover the
energy used for acceleration.

As the pod speed slow down our motor

actually turn into a generator.

So it recuperate the most of the energy

to recharge batteries on the pod.

The new motor system is about 50%

more efficient than any other type

of motor out there.

We have a system that's
going about three times

as fast as other maglev systems

for about the same amount of energy.

If we were to go the same speed,

we'd be at about a third less the energy

of a maglev system.

Virgin Hyperloop have
shown that the technology

is efficient and safe at high speeds.

And they estimate that the simpler track

would cost around two
thirds as much to build

as a high speed rail line.

With much lower operating costs.

But some in the industry believe

they face bigger challenges

than engineering and economics.

Such as gaining approval from governments

and acquiring the land to build it on.

Hyperloop is a new means of transportation.

So for that, we need new regulations.

The process will take many years.

Moreover, we need to go through a lot

of different land owners
to acquire this land.

And this process take a lot of time.

As we see it in examples,

building the highways or new high speed

line in Europe, even though

we have already the regulations being done

for this mode of transportation,

it might take up to 15
years actually to build

this kind of infrastructure here.

Kasia Foljanty is one of the founders

of Nevomo, a Polish
company that's approaching

Hyperloop very differently.

As well as planning a Hyperloop network.

They're also designing a hybrid system

that they believe can bridge the technology

gap and bring Hyperloop to reality sooner.

It's a high speed levitating vehicle

that could one day travel on existing

railroad tracks alongside
conventional trains.

So no new land would be needed.

It's called MagRail and can be used

for passengers or cargo.

In MagRail, we are using two out three

main elements of the Hyperloop system.

Linear motor and magnetic levitation.

If we are going to implement our MagRail

technology much faster than the Hyperloop

system might be implemented in Europe,

we can already test the two elements

and then prove that
they are actually working

and afterwards they can be also

implemented in the Hyperloop system.

The first full scale MagRail system

will be built along a disused railroad

in Southern Poland.

The team of preparing
to install the propulsion

and levitation systems.

A process they expect to ultimately cost

around $5 million per mile.

Less than half the cost of conventional

high speed rail.

Pawel Radziszewski is their

chief technology officer.

We'll adopt the railway truck by adding

the linear motor and the levitation system

on both sides.

Linear motor allows
MagRail vehicle to accelerate

and decelerate and
levitation system allows us

to basically soar above the infrastructure.

We start on wheels.

And then when we achieve
about 40 miles per hour,

we start to lift up and the vehicle moves

without any friction.

As with Hyperloop, the levitating vehicles

would use less energy
than conventional trains,

despite going much faster,

which reduces harmful emissions.

And by floating above the tracks,

there would also be less noise pollution.

We need to measure
the railway track in order

to make sure that it
will fit our requirements,

which basically must be very accurate

for MagRail system.

Meanwhile, in Warsaw, another team

including engineer, Natalia Strawa,

are testing the a propulsion system

with a half scale test track.

The advantage of the propulsion system

that we are developing
is that it's much more

energy efficient and allows us

to obtain higher speeds.

To fit the MagRail
technology into the existing

railway infrastructure
was quite challenging

because there is no much space

between the rail to put something there.

And we needed to add
some additional components.

So it took us quite a lot of time

to figure out how to do it.

The electric propulsion technology

between the rails is
secret and cannot be filmed.

Natalia's team are testing the new software

that delivers power to
segments of the track

and should ensure a comfortable ride

for future passengers
while also saving energy.

We want the passing between
segments to be smooth.

And we want to keep continuous thrust.

There is an issue with passing through

the segments because it's not so easy

to keep continuous thrust.

So we developed very
advanced control algorithms

system that take care of it.

This hybrid system
would be simpler, cheaper,

and faster to build than Hyperloop.

And can still reach speeds of up

to 340 miles per hour according to Nevomo.

They hope to make this next generation

transportation a reality by 2025,

with their full speed Hyperloop reaching


following in another decade.

Migrate technology is the first step

to implementing Hyperloop.

In the second stage, we want to add tubes

which will remove air from the equation,

and then we can achieve even faster speed

because we don't have aerodynamic drag.

The MagRail and Hyperloop technology

being developed today
could replace aircraft

to popular roots all over the world.

Potentially saving millions of tons

of carbon emissions every year.

But many of the longest journeys

by air fly over water.

So researchers are now investigating

the very limits of how
far Hyperloop can take us.

Whether it could ever be
possible to span oceans.

Now we see in the last couple of years

that the people are
tending to travel a lot,

especially it's between cities

along the coast or in coastal areas.

So a connection is very important between

continents and there
were up to 3,000 flights

each day that could be replaced

by Hyperloop connection.

So it would be beneficial for the future.

And we want to lower carbon footprints

and still have the benefits of traveling.

In 2019 project manager, Linda Kemp set out

to test how storm waves might affect

a Hyperloop tunnel
crossing the Atlantic ocean.

They designed an experiment in one

of the largest marine
testing basins in Europe

at the research center,
MARIN in the Netherlands.

This basin is 170 meters long.

So we're choosing to scale it down

and to make sure that we have something

that fits into the basin.

But you also want a model to be long enough

to see the impact of your test results.

Linda's team constructed a model

of a Hyperloop tube that's 110 times

smaller than the real thing would be.

The tube represents a 10 mile long section

of the full size tunnel submerged,

to the equivalent of 150
feet beneath the surface.

Once everything was in place,

the paddle started up to simulate a storm.

Mimicking monster waves

that would be up to 130 feet tall.

There's a really exciting moment when

the first wave is running into you.

The most extreme situation
was an Atlantic storm

that just happens one every 1,000 years.

And you really want a
structure to be capable

of still being there
after such kind of wave.

So we're testing these kind of waves to see

if a structure like this
could handle these waves.

Under the surface
cameras monitor the precise

position of LED lights on the tube

to detect any bending.

And instruments recorded the tension

on the mooring lines.

We expected that when the waves

are running over the tunnel,

that it would bend with the waves.

So it would be lifted and
it would go back again.

That's something that you don't want

when it's a Hyperloop.

But as the waves interacted with the tube,

something surprising happened.

We saw that the bending was even higher

than we expected.

The tunnel was lifted
up to the free surface.

So the forces due to the waves,

they take it up and lifted it.

And then it was just a floating tunnel

that was piercing through the surface.

And it was bending there as well.

Floating to the surface in a storm would be

disastrous for a real oceanic Hyperloop.

Damaging the infrastructure and potentially

colliding with ships.

Linda ran the storm waves a second time

with a tunnel now
submerged at twice the depth,

the equivalent of 300 feet deep.

This time as the waves
thundered over the tube,

it stayed underwater,
moving only a small amount.

The waves weren't impacting the tunnel

that much on the 100 meter water depth.

So movements and
accelerations are smaller there.

Many other factors such as the impact

on marine life still
need to be investigated.

But Linda had shown that even the most

powerful Atlantic storms shouldn't prevent

a connection between Europe and America.

So we concluded that it would be good

to consider, to have even
more larger submergence

depths for really safe travel.

Because I think, when you're talking about

transportation through a tube like this,

is that you really want something stable.

Hyperloops may one
day carry passengers deep

under the surface of the oceans,

connecting Asia to north
America's West Coast,

the East Coast to Europe,

and South America to Africa.

You could travel the world in hours

without ever stepping on a plane.

But while these ocean crossing tubes

are still the stuff of dreams.

The race is already on to build the world's

first commercial scale Hyperloop on land.

We're at a point now
where it's not a matter

of if there will be Hyperloops,

it's a matter of when
there will be Hyperloops.

You can imagine that
you would see Hyperloop

routes throughout the world.

Asia, North America, South America,

Europe, Australia.

I think we'll see a world where we

have Hyperloops on every continent.

The population is growing
and we need to meet

the needs of this higher demand.

Hyperloop is actually the only solution.

Most importantly, this
is the most sustainable

solution that we have at the moment.

We know the technology can work now

and it's about how can
we deploy the technology

to showcase its benefits and it' potential

as quickly as possible.

[Sara laughing]

I like to say that this is
a decade of Hyperloop.

It started with Sara and
I being the two people

to ride a Hyperloop.

It's gonna end with hundreds of millions

of people riding a Hyperloop.

It's a world with a fundamentally

different transportation system.

[crowd cheering]

And that's something that's actually

tremendously exciting.

[outro music]