Musk puts prototypes to the test in Hyperloop race
ELON Musk’s revolutionary transport system aimed at rocketing people through underground tubes at the speed of sound moved from dream to reality this weekend, when the South African staged the first Hyperloop race.
Twenty-eight teams — all but one based at universities around the world — took prototype small-scale pods to Musk’s SpaceX company in California, where the Pretoria-born entrepreneur is hosting races on a 1.6km test track.
The challenge is to create the best vehicle for the Hyperloop, unveiled by Musk in 2013 as a response to California High-Speed Rail, which he said was slow — at only 350km/h — and expensive.
The races are SpaceX’s challenge to students and engineers “to accelerate development of a functional Hyperloop prototype”. It said knowledge gained this weekend “will continue to be open-sourced”.
The races capped a heady two months for Musk in which shares in his Tesla Motors surged 40%, he completed the acquisition of solarpanel maker SolarCity, his Gigafactory in Nevada started producing batteries, a SpaceX reusable rocket put 10 satellites into orbit . . . and he won the ear of President Donald Trump.
Musk is on the president’s economic advisory board and was one of a dozen CEOs who met Trump on Monday to discuss manufacturing, taxes and trade.
“Elon Musk has an important line of communication to Donald Trump,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas. “This strategic relationship between Tesla leadership and the new administration is an important development.
“When you look at the businesses Tesla is in, you see many areas of overlapping interest [with Trump]. To the extent the new administration prioritises the creation of valuable, innovative hi-tech and manufacturing jobs, Tesla stands at the epicentre of that.”
Musk, 45, said just before the election that Trump was “not the right guy” for the job, but he shocked some of his customers on Tuesday when he declared on Twitter that former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson “has the potential to be an excellent secretary of state”.
His support drew a plea from climate scientist Michael Mann on Twitter: “You are a hero to so many climate activists Elon. Please don’t lend your imprimatur to an ExxonMobil-driven foreign policy.” — Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Elon Musk has an important line of communication to Donald Trump