Subject: Elon Musk to publish 'Hyperloop' design without patents, under open source license Tue Jul 23, 2013 2:07 am
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and chairman of SolarCity, has been teasing us for a while what he calls the 'Hyperloop', a "fifth mode of transportation" that would provide a very high-speed, high-efficiency, and safe alternative to boats, planes, automobiles and trains.
Quote :
Musk first announced the Hyperloop in July 2012 at a PandoDaily event in Santa Monica, California. Musk estimated the cost of the SF-LA Hyperloop would be about US$6 billion, one tenth as costly as the proposed high speed rail serving those cities. He has revealed that the Hyperloop is not the same as a vacuum tunnel. Musk has likened the hyperloop to both a ground-based Concorde and a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table", while noting that it has no need for rails. He believes it could work either below or above ground. Details of the system are still emerging. (source)
A safe cross between the Concorde, a railgun, and a air hockey table? Count me in!
And there's already a company working on vacuum tube transport: