Skip to main content

Virgin Hyperloop One unveils end-to-end app and test pod at CES 2018

Virgin Hyperloop One (VHO) has launched its passenger application demo, powered by Here Technologies (Here), at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018. The app aims to provide an end-to-end passenger experience by enabling users to book and pay for a journey as well as other modes of transportation, including public, private and ride-shares. The Hyperloop first-generation pod was also unveiled. Through Here’s Mobile Software Development Kit for Business, the application is said to offer detailed location,
January 9, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

Virgin Hyperloop One (VHO) has launched its passenger application demo, powered by Here Technologies (Here), at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018. The app aims to provide an end-to-end passenger experience by enabling users to book and pay for a journey as well as other modes of transportation, including public, private and ride-shares. The Hyperloop first-generation pod was also unveiled.

Through Here’s Mobile Software Development Kit for Business, the application is said to offer detailed location, mapping and navigation capabilities for 136 countries, public transit information for over 1,300 cities, and 3D indoor and venue maps.

The solution offers turn-by-turn indoor walking directions to help passengers negotiate large transit centres, venues, shopping centres and airports. In addition, users can customize their travel preferences by choosing route example options such as the fastest, cheapest, and greenest.

VHO’s XP-1 pod, combined with its proprietary electric motor, is designed to reach autonomous high-speed propulsion and levitation in a controlled low-pressure environment. This first-design passenger and cargo pod achieved record speeds of 240mph during its phase three testing. 

Rob Lloyd, CEO of VHO, said: “We’re giving the public a taste of what a Virgin Hyperloop One experience will be like by publicly unveiling our pod and demonstrating how passengers will experience booking a hyperloop trip from their pocket. Every hardware and software milestone brings us closer to commercializing hyperloop.”

Related Content

  • Aurora to develop ride-hailing AVs
    February 17, 2021
    Group partners with Toyota to deliver affordable autonomous ride-sharing vehicles
  • Cooperative infrastructure systems waiting for the go ahead
    February 3, 2012
    Despite much research and technological promise, progress towards cooperative infrastructure system deployment is still slow. Here, Robert Cone and John Miles take a considered look at how and when it might come about. From a systems engineering viewpoint it looks logical and inevitable that vehicles should be communicating between themselves and with the road infrastructure. But seen from a business viewpoint the case is not proven.
  • Euro NCAP puts autonomous pedestrian detection to the test
    November 11, 2015
    European safety organisation Euro NCAP is introducing a new test that will check how well vehicles autonomously detect and prevent collisions with pedestrians, which it says will make it simpler for consumers and manufacturers to find out which systems work best. According to Euro NCAP, independent analysis of real world crash data in the UK and Germany indicates that the deployment of effective autonomous emergency braking systems on passenger cars could prevent one in five fatal pedestrian collisions.
  • New system expedites border crossings
    October 28, 2016
    Enforcing border controls can create long queues for travellers, David Crawford looks at potential solutions. Long delays at border crossings in both North America and Europe have sparked the development of new queue visualisation and management technologies that are cutting hours, even days, off international passenger and freight journeys. At the westernmost end of the 2,019km (1,250 mile) Mexico–US frontier, two parallel crossings between Tijuana, in the former country, and the border city of San Diego,