Virgin Hyperloop, has passed the first manned driving test of an empty very high speed train in 20 minutes in ‘Seoul-Busan’

▲ Josie Ziegal (left), Chief Technology Officer of Virgin Hyperloop (CTO) and Sara Lussion Passenger Experience Manager attended the Virgin Hyperloop Crewed Driving Test held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on 8th (local time). Virgin Hyperloop announced that the experiment was successful. Las Vegas News / Reuters Yonhap

Hyperloop, a high-speed empty train, succeeded in its first manned driving test. If Hyperloop is commercialized, the era of relocation from Seoul to Busan could begin within 20 minutes.

According to the CNN broadcast on the 8th (local time), Virgin Hyperloop announced that the manned driving test held at the Debrup Test Center in Las Vegas that day was successfully completed. The driving test that day was attended by Chief Technology Officer Josh Ji-geol (CTO) and Sara Lusion’s passenger experience person.

In this test, the top speed of the Virgin Hyperloop was 172 km / h. Their ultimate goal is to drive at speeds above 966 km / h. At this speed, it only takes 20 minutes to get from Seoul to Busan. The next experiment will be conducted at a test site in West Virginia. To this end, Virgin Hyperloop is building a 9.6 km long tunnel at a cost of $ 500 million (approximately 558.3 ​​billion won).

The test cabin for two is a short train with small windows. “If we commercialize Hyperloop, we will develop a Ford that can accommodate 20 to 30 people at a time,” said CTO Zigall. “We will carry tens of thousands of passengers per hour.” Hyperloop can penetrate both ground and underground tunnels, but as underground tunnels are expensive, Virgin Hyperloop is first working on a ground tunnel project. Virgin Hyperloop is confident it will begin commercialization by 2030, anticipating the availability of safety certification from 2025 to 2026.

It’s not just the Virgin Hyperloop that joined Hyperloop. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who first introduced the technology in 2013, said, “We will create a transportation vehicle that travels from New York to Los Angeles (LA) in 45 minutes.” The Boring Company, Musk’s tunneling company, is currently building a system called the “Loop” in Las Vegas.