Virgin Hyperloop One Clocks Record 240 MPH In Latest Round of Testing

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Dec 20, 2017

Are we closer than ever to seeing the Hyperloop One become a real thing?

There’s been a lot of movement around Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One project, and almost all of it points to the technology becoming a real thing in the future. Fresh off announcing Sir Richard Branson’s appointment as company chairman and adopting the “Virgin” name as part of its branding strategy, Virgin Hyperloop One managed to hit a top speed of 240 mph during its third phase of testing at the company’s DevLoop test track in Nevada.

Raise your hands if you expected the development of Virgin Hyperloop One to progress as fast as it has? My hands are up in the sky because I didn’t think it would happen this quickly. Guess I was wrong.

The pace at which this project has progressed is staggering. Remember, it was only a few years ago when Elon Musk first brought up the idea of a high-speed public transportation system that can reach speeds that no other land-based system is capable of reaching. I thought Musk had finally bitten off more than he could chew, but considering where Virgin Hyperloop One is now, it looks like I’m the one that needs to eat some crow.

That said, I’m not complaining one bit. I’ll happily eat the humble pie if it means that we’re a step closer to seeing Virgin Hyperloop One become a reality. It’s not just that it set a new speed record for a tubular transport system. That’s a big deal in it of itself, but so is the company is getting more and more investments from all corners of the business world. Recently, Caspian Venture Capital and DP World invested $50 million in the project, raising the total number of investments on Virgin Hyperloop One to $295 million since 2014. As impressive as that is, expect that total to rise again soon once the company jumps into a Series C round of funding. That’s expected to happen sometime in 2018, among many other developments that are in the pipeline.

Who knows, if Virgin Hyperloop One progresses at the rate its progressing, we could see it come to life as a viable form of public transportation sooner than later. Company CEO Rob Lloyd has already indicated that a big focus of the company in the coming year would be to “ accelerate commercial agreements for both passenger and cargo projects." If that’s the case, all these possibilities are now on the table.

Hard to imagine that as recently as five years ago, the thought of this kind of public transportation was just that — a thought.