Josh Giegel: Super speed, magnetic levitation and the vision behind the hyperloop | TED

TL;DR

The hyperloop is a high-speed transit system in which modular pods travel through a low-pressure tube at airline speeds using about one tenth of an aircraft’s energy consumption. Josh Giegel explains how the design evolved from traditional maglev into a “smart pod, dumb tube” architecture and how more than 500 system runs preceded the first passenger test in November 2020. Read on to understand its engineering, efficiency, and development.

Transcript

Imagine you're planning a trip up the coast, but instead of driving, you decide to hop into a vehicle shaped like a giant aluminum can. Your heart pounds as you strap yourself in. The air is stagnant. Beads of sweat are pooling on your brow as you prepare to launch. The vehicle starts to move. Before you know it, you're going 500 miles per hour. Yo... Read More

Key Insights

• 🚀 Humans have gone from considering flying inconceivable to now flying without a second thought, demonstrating our ability to adapt and accept new forms of transportation.
• 🚄 Hyperloop, a transit system with pods traveling inside a tube with reduced air resistance, has the potential to revolutionize short-haul journeys and commutes, offering airline speeds with minimal energy consumption.
• 🌍 The transportation industry, particularly in the United States, is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting the need for more sustainable alternatives like the hyperloop.
• 🔧 The key to the hyperloop's success lies in the combination of a passive and simple tube structure, much like a road, with modular and upgradeable pods, similar to automobiles, enabling future advancements in technology.
• 🔍 Building a functional hyperloop was initially seen as unrealistic, but through deep scientific and engineering exploration, it has been proven possible.
• 💡 The idea of a smart pod and a dumb tube, similar to a smart vehicle and a passive road, was inspired by the observation of different cars driving on the same road. This approach makes the hyperloop future-proof and adaptable to new technology innovations.
• 🚧 Creating a hyperloop system requires assembling a skilled and diverse team of engineers, experienced in designing various advanced technologies, including reusable rockets and electric vehicles.
• 🌐 The successful demonstration of the hyperloop system with the first passengers on board has opened up possibilities for global discussions and plans to build hyperloop systems in different parts of the world, signaling a shift in the way we travel.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is a hyperloop and how does it work?

A hyperloop is a transit system in which a vehicle called a pod travels inside a tube about the size of a subway tunnel. Most, but not all, of the air is removed, creating conditions equivalent to flying at about 200,000 feet and allowing the pod to glide at airline speeds without turbulence.

Q: How energy-efficient is the hyperloop compared with an aircraft?

Giegel says the hyperloop can travel at airline speeds using about one tenth of an aircraft’s energy consumption. Reducing air resistance inside the tube is what enables this efficiency.

Q: How could the hyperloop change short-haul travel?

The system is intended to transform short-haul journeys and commutes from hours into minutes. Giegel argues that this could also help change transportation’s emissions trend, noting that transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

Q: What inspired Josh Giegel to build a hyperloop?

In 2013, Elon Musk released the “Hyperloop Alpha” white paper with an open invitation to turn its concept into reality. Giegel and his team set out to make the system tangible, safe, sustainable, and economically viable, and he quit his job to help build it.

Q: How does the hyperloop differ from traditional maglev?

The team’s early prototypes followed the traditional maglev approach, in which the track controls the vehicle. They later adopted a passive, simple tube paired with modular pods that contain the evolving technology.

Q: What does “smart pod, dumb tube” mean?

It means keeping the tube passive and simple while making the pod modular, upgradeable, and capable of evolving as technology advances. Giegel drew the analogy after seeing a 1933 Ford Roadster and a Tesla Model S using the same passive road.

Q: What engineering systems are required to build the hyperloop?

The project requires large vacuum structures, passive magnetic guideways, pods that can withstand a space-like environment, next-generation batteries, magnetic levitation, and a highly efficient linear electric motor. The team included hundreds of engineers with experience in reusable rockets, spaceships, autonomous aircraft, electric vehicles, and AI systems.

Q: How was the hyperloop tested before carrying passengers?

The team built a test track in the desert outside Las Vegas and operated the system more than 500 times, alongside many subsystem tests. By October 2020, it had completed hundreds of tests, including tests with mannequins, and an independent safety auditor approved the first passenger test, which took place in November 2020.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The hyperloop is a high-speed mass transit system where pods travel inside a tube with reduced air resistance, allowing for speeds similar to airplanes but with a fraction of the energy consumption.

• The transportation industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and the hyperloop aims to change this trend by transforming short-haul journeys into quick and sustainable commutes.

• The hyperloop system has undergone successful tests, showing that this once deemed ludicrous idea is now a feasible and promising solution for the future of transportation.