The Hyperloop dream is no more—at least for now. Sources tell Bloomberg that Hyperloop One, the once much-ballyhooed startup building high-speed freight trains, is shuttering and will spend its final days trying to sell its assets, including a small test track in Nevada. Most of the company's workers have already been let go, and remaining employees now have been given a last day of Dec. 31. A source notes that any and all intellectual property will be transferred to DP World, a conglomerate based in the United Arab Emirates that owns a majority stake in Hyperloop.
The hyperloop system employs a magnetic levitation system that would have resulted in an almost-silent, super-speedy trip—it's predicted, for example, that the journey between New York City and Washington, DC, would take just a half-hour. That's "twice as fast as a commercial jet flight and four times faster than a high-speed train," per Reuters. Bloomberg notes that Hyperloop One sprung up in 2014, after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk disseminated a white paper detailing what such technology would look like. But "it was a dream too impossible for this world," despite the $450 million in venture capital and other investments the company had raised since its founding, notes the Verge.
Not only did Hyperloop One never earn a contract to construct a working hyperloop, but several of its biggest names, including two of its co-founders, found themselves caught up in allegations of harassment, sexual assault, and fraud, among others. Hyperloop One's prototype conducted just one test run with human passengers, in 2020, but the pod was only able to reach 100mph—far short of the top speed of 760mph that had been promoted. There are a handful of smaller companies that are working on hyperloop technology, but the Verge notes that "the demise of one of the biggest hyperloop companies signals the end of the dream." (More Hyperloop stories.)
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