It has a long way to go to match the speed and capacity of high-speed rail technology, but at least the Hyperloop has achieved one critical benchmark: a test involving human passengers.
"Virgin Hyperloop announced that for the first time it has conducted a test of its ultra-fast transportation system with human passenger," reports Andrew J. Hawkins.
"The test took place on Sunday afternoon at the company’s DevLoop test track in the desert outside Las Vegas, Nevada," according to Hawkins. "The first two passengers were Virgin Hyperloop’s chief technology officer and co-founder, Josh Giegel, and head of passenger experience, Sara Luchian."
The pod achieved a speed of 100 mph on the 500-meter-long track. "The company says it has conducted over 400 tests on that track, but never before with human passengers — until [November 8]," according to Hawkins.
The article includes details of how far the technology has to go to reach its theoretical potential—or even the reality of existing high-speed rail technology.
Virgin Hyperloop since released video of the test on YouTube, shown above.
Various media outlets picked up news of the test, including Smart Cities Dive and CNN Business.
FULL STORY: Virgin Hyperloop Hits an Important Milestone: The First Human Passenger Test
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research