Dive Brief:
- Hyperloop One, formerly Hyperloop Technologies Inc., has announced an $80 million investment, the International Business Times reported, as well as the first successful propulsion test at its North Las Vegas facility on Wednesday.
- Company officials said the $80 million will help to finance a full system test, most likely before the end of this year.
- The company has also launched an international competition to determine where its first Hyperloop system will be built, and some onlookers say a Sweden-to-Finland route is among the most viable plans to date.
Dive Insight:
Hyperloop One is just one of the companies that answered Tesla founder Elon Musk's 2013 call to develop an elevated, high-speed, sustainable, emissionless mode of transportation. Company officials said they changed the name to indicate that they intend to be the first with a fully operational Hyperloop system.
The company also announced that it would work with strategic partners, all important to the successful implementation of the Hyperloop system, including AECOM, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and KPMG. AECOM already has a Hyperloop track under construction at Elon Musk's SpaceX headquarters but has said it does not favor one system over another. BIG is a global architecture firm known for its cutting edge designs, including the new Google campus in Mountain View, CA.
In January, Musk made a surprise appearance at the Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend at Texas A&M University, where a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a chance to test its pod design at the Space X track once complete. Musk told the crowd that he had no official involvement with any of the companies seeking to develop the Hyperloop concept. Also in attendance was U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, who told the crowd that the U.S. government should "lean in" to technological advancements like the Hyperloop and did not eliminate the possibility of future public funding.
