There’s an unusual testing ground in the Nevada desert, and it’s begun transporting people in pods through vacuum tubes. It may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but the reality of this high-tech commuter system could shorten transport times from hours down to minutes, and even seconds. The Virgin Hyperloop, as it’s called, builds on a proposal by Tesla founder Elon Musk. It’s based on the world's fastest magnetic levitation (maglev) trains, then made faster by speeding along inside vacuum tubes. The maglev train speed world record was set in 2015 when a Japanese train reached 374mph in a test run near Mount Fuji. Founded in 2014, Virgin Hyperloop received investment from the Virgin Group in 2017. The Los Angeles-based Hyperloop is also exploring concepts in other countries, including a hypothetical 12-minute connection between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which takes more than an hour via the public transportation system currently in use. Critics point out that Hyperloop travel systems would involve considerable planning permissions, along with a vast construction of networks, with tubes for every travel path. There's a considerable amount of infrastructure that will need to be built to bring this sci-fi travel pipeline into reality. Although the brand new commuter system network would be a mammoth undertaking, it would offer many solutions to outdated transport systems worldwide and mitigate the problems posed by outdated infrastructures.
