Tired of gridlock traffic during your morning and evening commutes? That could all be changed thanks to Hyperloop, the proposed high speed transit network that could send passengers zooming to work in pods traveling up to 760 miles per hour.
A prototype of the sci-fi sounding transit line is slated to begin construction in “about two or three weeks” on a five mile stretch in Kings County, architecture magazine Dazeen reported. The transportation system is the brainchild of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and was originally scheduled to break ground in May of 2016.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, one of the companies developing Musk’s project, is slated to have the privately funded prototype finished in about 32 months for a cost of $150 million. During the testing process, more than 10 million passengers could have an opportunity to ride in the sleek, bullet-like transport tube, according to the magazine.
“It’s the closest thing to teletransportation,” Hyperloop’s chief operating officer Bibpob Gresta said in a statement to Dazeen. “It will completely change humanity.”
Musk first introduced the Hyperloop concept in 2013 as an ideal transit line for cities less than 900 miles apart. He said on the Tesla website that the inspiration for the project came after he was left disappointed by the California High-Speed Rail, which he called “one of the slowest in the world.”
The inventor has encouraged contributions to the project and left the open-source design for it on his website. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is also offering stock options to volunteer engineers who work 10 hours a week on prototype.
