Video: How hyperloop will transport passengers between cities in minutes

Dubai - The video demonstrates an optimistic view of the future: a greener, smoother, safer, and pleasant mass transit experience.

Virgin Hyperloop on Thursday unveiled its vision for the future hyperloop experience, mere months after their first passenger test in November. The concept video takes the viewer step-by-step through a hyperloop journey, from arriving at the portal to boarding the pod.

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Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World and Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop, said: “Showing the passenger experience of Virgin Hyperloop is a glimpse of the future, following the success three months ago when people rode in a hyperloop pod for the first time. We have demonstrated the maturity of our technology. We are getting closer to commercialisation of what will be the first new mass-scale transportation mode in a century.”

“Designing a new mode of transportation from scratch is both an opportunity and a responsibility,” said Sara Luchian, Virgin Hyperloop’s Director of Passenger Experience and one of the first people to ride the hyperloop in November. “Hyperloop technology – and what it enables – is paradigm-shifting. It follows that the passenger experience should be nothing short of extraordinary.”

Virgin Hyperloop worked with world-class partners across industries — including Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for the portal designs, Teague for the pod designs, SeeThree for the video and animation, and Man Made Music for the score and sonic identity — to design a comprehensive, multi-sensory passenger experience.

“Virgin Hyperloop can accelerate the future of mobility on land. The new mode of travel at supersonic speed rethinks transportation and the perception of space, landscape, time, and distance,” said Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. “In this day and age, Virgin Hyperloop taking off from our portals provides holistic, intelligent transportation for a globalized community to travel across vast distances in a safer, cleaner, easier, and faster way than airlines.”

The video demonstrates a rather optimistic view of the future: a greener, smoother, safer, and pleasant mass transit experience.

The new mode of transportation also researched challenges related to sound — from how to evoke a sense of privacy and space to how to enhance a sense of safety and calm. Joel Beckerman, Founder and Lead Composer at Man Made Music, explained, “We respond to sound quicker than any other sense, so sound actually drives the multi-sensory experiences.” He noted that the sonic cues employed in the hyperloop are ‘felt’ rather than ‘heard’. Comparing it to a great movie score, he said, "We know when we’ve got it right when you don’t notice the sound at all: the interface is humanised in ways that are both fresh and familiar.”

Accessibility is a key pillar of the hyperloop passenger experience. While ticket prices will vary depending on the exact route, a recent study in Ohio found that hyperloop fares would be more akin to the cost of driving, rather than flying.

“It’s simple. If it’s not affordable, people won’t use it,” said Jay Walder, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop. “Daily high-speed transport is currently not feasible for most people, but we want to change that notion. Imagine being able to commute between cities that are currently hours apart in minutes — and the endless possibilities that opens up.”

On demand and direct to destination, the hyperloop system would be able to transport thousands of passengers per hour, despite the fact that each vehicle carries only about 28 passengers. This is achieved by 'convoying', where vehicles are able to travel behind one another in the tube within milliseconds, controlled by machine intelligence software.

Virgin Hyperloop aims to achieve safety certification by 2025, with commercial operations — such as those depicted in the newly-released video — beginning in 2030.

• UAE