Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The Futurama Is Now!

The future of long distance travel may be closer than we think... if we can afford it.

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and general science genius, has released designs for the Hyperloop. It's a train in a tube moved by air pressure. Think of Futurama and the personal transport tubes people zip around the city in or the thing at the bank they use to send money out to people at the drive thru. It's basically a bigger one of those.

This would cut travel time across the US by huge percentages. For example: it could go from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes, a trip that now takes several hours. It would also cost 1/10th of what a high-speed rail line would cost ($7 billion compared to $70 billion).

The "pods" would hold 28 people and travel at speeds in excess of 750 mph! There is also an alternative design that would allow people to drive their cars into the pods with them. All of this is speculation at this point as no real world testing has been done.

There are costs and challenges ahead but this could revolutionize everything from transporting food and other goods to personal travel.

Click to read the full details on the Hyperloop at Gizmodo.com

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