Skip to main content

First full-scale Hyperloop test track ‘planned for 2016’

According to website The Verge, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) has secured land for the first full-scale Hyperloop, planned for a 2016 launch in the California model town of Quay Valley. Building off Elon Musk's freely available designs, the crowdfunded company has marked out a five-mile stretch of Quay Valley adjacent to California's Interstate 5 freeway as a place where the innovative transportation system can be deployed. If successful, it would be the first full-size implementation of Musk'
March 2, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
RSSAccording to website The Verge, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) has secured land for the first full-scale Hyperloop, planned for a 2016 launch in the California model town of Quay Valley.

Building off Elon Musk's freely available designs, the crowdfunded company has marked out a five-mile stretch of Quay Valley adjacent to California's Interstate 5 freeway as a place where the innovative transportation system can be deployed. If successful, it would be the first full-size implementation of Musk's ideas for a mass-transit system which could propel capsules carrying humans at high speed through a series of low pressure tubes, published in August 2013.

"This installation will allow us to demonstrate all systems on a full scale and immediately begin generating revenues for our shareholders through actual operations," CEO Dirk Ahlborn said in a statement.

Musk is already building his own Hyperloop test track in Texas, but HTT says Musk's track is a scaled-down model, allowing for easier testing of the physics involved. HTT's track will be designed for human passengers, testing the passenger systems, but will come with other limitations. With only five miles of track, the craft will top out at just 200mph rather than the 760mph predicted in Musk's initial documents.

"It's not about speed," Ahlborn said. "There are a lot of other things that need to be optimised."

HTT will be moving towards a public offering near the end of 2015 in order to reach its US$100 million funding goal. They Hyperloop is expected to be up and running between 2019 and 2025.

Related Content

  • Solar-powered traffic detection improves communication
    January 31, 2012
    Pete Goldin reports on a new wireless, solar-powered traffic detection system being used by Caltrans District 12. As more and more traffic data is necessary to satisfy the needs of traffic management centres and traveller information systems, and as traffic detection technology becomes more ubiquitous, transportation authorities are pressured to find more economical ways of expanding their detection systems. Caltrans District 12 is leading this push by deploying the latest detection system from Case Global
  • European associations and congress news
    August 19, 2015
    A preliminary speaker line-up and a number of live demonstrations have been announced for the 2015 ITS World Congress. The demonstrations will include Automatic Braking, a plug in ‘connected vehicle’ Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control at Intersections, Remote Parking and Driver Monitoring System for Automated Driving and Bicycle Tracking. As part of the Automatic Emergency Braking demonstration the driver’s performance will be analysed, along with the behaviour of the other road users. Drivers will receiv
  • TAPCO acquires Hawkins Traffic Safety Supply
    March 10, 2015
    Traffic and Parking Control (TAPCO) has increased its product offering with the acquisition of California-based traffic industry manufacturer and supplier Hawkins Traffic Safety Supply, now operating as Hawkins Traffic, a division of TAPCO. TAPCO believes synergies between the two companies will better serve its customers nationally, while providing those on the west coast with additional traffic and parking control options. Hawkins has been manufacturing traffic control products for seven decades and will
  • Autonomous vehicles are everywhere says report
    March 20, 2015
    A new IDTechEx report, Autonomous Vehicles: Land, Water, Air 2015-2035 claims autonomous vehicles are successful here and now but you are unlikely to meet one because the successes are in the upper atmosphere, open cast mines, nuclear power stations, underwater and in other relatively inaccessible places. It goes on to explains that the primary technology of an autonomous vehicle is that which confers autonomy and the powertrain, which is usually electric. The powertrain and navigation and control technolo