Virgin Hyperloop One
Virgin Hyperloop is an American transportation technology company that works to commercialize the high-speed technology concept called the Hyperloop. The company was established on June 1, 2014 and reorganized and renamed on October 12, 2017. Hyperloop systems are intended to move passengers and/or cargo at airline speeds at a fraction of the cost of air travel. The concept of Hyperloop transportation was first introduced by Elon Musk on August 12, 2013. The planned route runs from Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada.
The original Hyperloop concept is proposed to use a linear electric motor to accelerate and decelerate an electromagnetically levitated pod through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle would glide silently for miles at speeds up to 760 mph with very low turbulence. The system is proposed to be entirely autonomous, quiet, direct-to-destination and on-demand. Additionally, as Hyperloop is proposed to be built on columns or tunneled underground, this could eliminate the dangers of at-grade crossings and require smaller rights of way than high-speed rail or a highway. Virgin Hyperloop One has made substantive technical changes to Musk's initial proposal and chose not to pursue the Los Angeles–to–San Francisco notional route that Musk envisioned in his 2013 alpha-design white paper.
The company had raised $295 million on December 18, 2017 and demonstrated a form of propulsion technology on May 11, 2016 at its test site in North Las Vegas. Hyperloop One has completed a 500-meter Development Loop and on May 12, 2017, held its first full-scale Hyperloop test. The test combined Hyperloop components including vacuum, propulsion, levitation, sled, control systems, tube and structures. As of May 2019, the company had raised $400 million.
Its publicly stated goal is to provide a fully operational Hyperloop system by 2020 or 2021.
History
The idea for Hyperloop emerged from a conversation between Elon Musk and Iranian American Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar when they were flying together to Cuba on a humanitarian mission in January 2012. Pishevar asked Musk to elaborate on his Hyperloop idea, which the industrialist had been mulling over 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 pushed Musk to publish his ideas about the Hyperloop, so that Pishevar could study them.On August 12, 2013, Musk released the Hyperloop Alpha white paper, generating widespread attention and enthusiasm. In the months that followed Pishevar incorporated Hyperloop Technologies, which would later be renamed Hyperloop One, 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 Los Angeles in November 2014. By January 2015, Hyperloop Tech had raised $9 million in venture capital from Pishevar's Sherpa Capital and investors such as Formation 8 and Zhen Fund, and was able to move into its current campus in the Los Angeles Arts District. 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, the company's CEO.
Between June 2015 and December 2015, the company continued to hire engineers and expand its downtown campus. In December 2015, the renamed Hyperloop One announced it would hold an open-air propulsion test at a new Test and Safety Site in Nevada. At the time, the company disclosed it had raised $37 million in financing to date and was completing a Series B round of $80m, which they closed on in May 2016. In October 2016, Hyperloop One announced that it had raised another $50 million, led by an investment from DP World.
The propulsion open-air test or POAT, was successfully held in North Las Vegas on May 11, 2016. The POAT sled accelerated to 134 mph in 2.3 seconds, representing a crucial proof of concept. At the time Hyperloop One announced it had secured partnerships with global engineering and design firms such as AECOM, SYSTRA, Arup, Deutsche Bahn, General Electric, and Bjarke Ingels.
On July 28, 2016, Hyperloop One opened a tooling and machine shop called Metalworks in North Las Vegas, where it fabricates the parts for its nearby test track, called Devloop.
On November 10, 2016, Hyperloop One released its first system designs in collaboration with the Bjarke Ingels Group.
On May 12, 2017, Hyperloop One tested a full-scale Hyperloop. The system-wide test integrated Hyperloop components including vacuum, propulsion, levitation, sled, control systems, tube, and structures.
On July 12, 2017, the company revealed images of its first generation pod prototype to be used at the DevLoop test site in Nevada to test aerodynamics. On August 2, 2017, Hyperloop One successfully tested its XP-1 passenger pod, reaching speeds of up to. It traveled for just over before the brakes kicked in and it rolled to a stop.
On October 12, 2017, Hyperloop One and the Virgin Group announced that it developed a strategic investment partnership, resulting in Richard Branson joining the board of directors. The global strategic partnership will focus on passenger and mixed-use cargo service in addition to the creation of a new passenger division. Subsequently, Hyperloop One was renamed Virgin Hyperloop One, and Branson became the chairman of the board of directors.
In October 2019, Virgin Hyperloop One announced it will begin the construction of a facility in North Texas.
In June 2020, Virgin Hyperloop One rebranded to Virgin Hyperloop, changing their logo and launching a new website.
Passenger pods
XP-1
After Hyperloop One began the construction of DevLoop in October 2016, the company successfully conducted the first full-system test using the levitating chassis without passenger pod on May 12, 2017. The next phase of the test would involve a passenger pod. The company designed and built its first generation passenger pod name XP-1 to be used in the full-scale pod tests.XP-1 has the length of, the width of, and the height of. The pod's motor was evolved from 500 motors that were built and tested in order to operate with resiliency in near-vacuum environment. The pod was successfully tested for the first time on July 29, 2017 with the of acceleration to reach the recorded speeds of. The pod achieved 3,151 horsepower during the test inside the depressurized tube with conditions similar to the atmosphere at above sea level.
The XP-1 speed record was broken in August 2017 by WARR Hyperloop during the second Hyperloop Pod Competition with the top speeds of. However, the pods in the competition were small and would not be large enough to carry passengers. XP-1 set the world's speed record again during the test in December 2017 that reached. With that test, the company also demonstrated its airlock technology that allowed the pod to be transferred into the depressurized tube. With this system, XP-1 pod can be put in an airlock which takes a few minutes to depressurize before entering the already depressurized tube. Otherwise, the pod would need to enter the tube and wait for the 4-hour depressurization of the entire test tube. In 2018, WARR Hyperloop broke XP-1 record again in the third Hyperloop Pod Competition.
In the summer of 2019, the company brought XP-1 to a roadshow to Ohio, Texas, Kansas, New York, Missouri, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.
Funding
Hyperloop One has raised around $400 million as of May 2019. Its investors include Sherpa Capital, Formation 8, 137 Ventures, DP World, Khosla Ventures, Caspian Venture Capital, Fast Digital, Western Technology Investment, Zhen Fund, GE Ventures, and SNCF.On October 16, 2018, the Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia walked away from a planned US$1 billion investment in Hyperloop and other Virgin companies.
Management
The CEO of Hyperloop One is Jay Walder, former CEO of Motivate. The co-founder and President of Engineering is Josh Giegel., the board of directors include Richard Branson, Justin Fishner-Wolfson, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Rob Lloyd, Josh Giegel, Bill Shor, Yuvraj Narayan, Anatoly Braverman, and Emily White as a strategic adviser. Former board members include Peter Diamandis, Jim Messina who as of July 2018 serves as strategic adviser, former Morgan Stanley executive Jim Rosenthal, Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder Shervin Pishevar, who took a leave of absence from Hyperloop One in December 2017 after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, and Ziyavudin Magomedov, a Russian billionaire who was arrested on embezzlement charges in 2018.
On November 8, 2018, Richard Branson was replaced as chairman by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.
Planned cooperation
In June 2016 the company announced a memorandum of understanding with the Summa Group and the Russian Government to construct a Hyperloop in Moscow and has since completed two feasibility studies – one in Moscow and one in the Far East.In August 2016, Hyperloop One announced a deal with the world's third largest ports operator, DP World, to develop a cargo offloader system at DP World's flagship port of Jebel Ali in Dubai. On November 8, 2016, Hyperloop One announced it had signed a deal with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority to conduct a number of feasibility studies on potential passenger and cargo Hyperloop routes in the United Arab Emirates.
By April 2017, Hyperloop One had feasibility studies underway in the United Arab Emirates, Finland and Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Moscow, and the UK.
On September 1, 2017, Hyperloop signed a letter of intent with Estonia to cooperate on the Helsinki to Tallinn Tunnel.
In February 2018, the Virgin Group signed an "intent agreement" with the government of the Government of Maharashtra state of India to build a hyperloop transportation system between Mumbai and Pune. In August 2019, the government has deemed hyperloop a public infrastructure project and approved the Virgin Hyperloop-DP World Consortium as the Original Project Proponent, recognizing hyperloop technology alongside other more traditional forms of mass transit. The Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, K. VijayRaghavan, set up a committee called the Consultative Group on Future of Transportation to explore the regulatory path for hyperloop.
On July 19, 2018, an Ohio regional planning commission was investigating concepts of using Hyperloop between airports and potentially between regional cities such as Chicago, Columbus and Pittsburgh; in May 2020 the commission released the results of their Midwest Connect feasibility study, which found that the route between the three cities would create $300 billion in overall economic benefits and reduce CO2 emission by 2.4 million tons.
In June 2019, Hyperloop One announced an ongoing collaboration with the Sam Fox School of Washington University in St. Louis to explore proposals for the Missouri Hyperloop.
In February 2020, Saudi Arabia and Virgin Hyperloop One signed a partnership agreement; Virgin Hyperloop One will conduct a pre-feasibility study.
Hyperloop One Global Challenge
In 2016, Hyperloop One launched its Hyperloop One Global Challenge to find the locations for, and develop and construct, the world's first Hyperloop networks. In January 2017, Hyperloop One announced the 35 semifinalist routes in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge. Hyperloop One held a series of events showcasing the semifinalists, Vision for India in February, Vision for America in April and Vision for Europe in June.On September 14, 2017, Hyperloop One announced the 10 winners for the Hyperloop One Global Challenge. The Hyperloop One Global Challenge was judged by an international panel of consisting of five judges: Peter Diamandis, Bassam Mansour, Ulla Tapaninen, Clive Burrows, and Alan Berger. The countries with teams that won include the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, and India. The winners were to be invited to work closely with Hyperloop One on viability studies to try and bring their respective loops from proposal to reality.
The ten winning routes that were selected are:
| # | Country | Route |
| 1 | Chicago to Columbus to Pittsburgh | |
| 2 | Dallas to Laredo to Houston | |
| 3 | Cheyenne to Denver to Pueblo | |
| 4 | Miami to Orlando | |
| 5 | Toronto to Ottawa to Montreal | |
| 6 | Mexico City to Guadalajara | |
| 7 | Edinburgh to London | |
| 8 | Glasgow to Liverpool | |
| 9 | Bengaluru to Chennai | |
| 10 | Mumbai to Chennai |