HYPERLOOP COMPANY LURES SCIENTISTS WITH KNOWLEDGE-FOR-SHARES OFFER
HTT is acquiring global expertise at a fraction of the usual cost, writes Nick Webster in Belo Horizonte
It is important for the UAE to understand that we are trying to connect this technology around the world
The company behind plans to bring super-fast travel to the UAE is using Nasa scientists and world-renowned experts to make the technology a reality.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is offering shares in the company to some of the best experts in their field to develop the high-speed transport system that could drastically cut travel times between cities and even continents. Executives spoke to The National in Brazil as they signed a deal to open a freight terminal in Contagem, near Belo Horizonte, the country’s sixth largest city, from which the technology can operate. Tech start-ups that have taken on the science of moving objects at high speed through electro-magnetic levitation have so far struggled to develop it into a viable commercial system.
One of the main sticking points is the huge investment required to gather engineering expertise and insight to develop feasibility studies, crucial to attracting government involvement.
HTT’s business model of offering shares in the company is helping to keep costs down.
“We have the best team of talent available to work on this project,” said Bibop Gresta, the president and co-founder of HTT, which is based in California.
“Nasa scientists are working with university lecturers to Pulitzer prize nominees. Many don’t get paid a salary, just stock options, so it must be something they believe in.
“That is what makes it so exciting. The only way you can build this is to answer questions in a very specific way to come up with working solutions.”
HTT has completed its own feasibility study on the model planned for the UAE, probably between Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.
Rivals at Virgin Hyperloop One, backed by Dubai ports operator DP World and Sir Richard Branson, will conduct a similar evaluation on a service between Pune and Mumbai in India, which could reduce transport times from 3 hours to 25 minutes.
The Virgin company has also signed an agreement with the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Despite the rivalry, those at HTT insist the technology is not an arms race to bring the first project to the mass market.
“It is impossible to say when people will be able to use the hyperloop and while we have to be optimistic, we have a responsibility to say to the world that we are ready,” said Andres de Leon, the company’s chief operating officer.
“The technology is in development so now it is time to implement it with the regulation. Guidelines are being created to help this process to accelerate.”
Passenger tubes and capsules have arrived in Toulouse and HTT will connect that side of the technology very soon.
“It is unprecedented, with investors committing to this project from all over the world,” Mr Gresta said. “Hyperloop TT are not the conquistadors to exploit countries but to enhance and leave a lasting legacy and growth within communities.”
HTT is quietly confident that its will be the first to enter public service. A passenger pod will be launched on a 1-kilometre test track in Toulouse this year. It follows the unveiling of the freight and innovation centre in Contagem.
The city’s Hyperloop Academy will bring jobs and training to an underdeveloped corner of the Minas Gerais region of Brazil.
“I have the most exciting role with HTT because I can innovate and dream without walls,” said Yvonne Cagle, an American Nasa astronaut.
“While building bridges with the academy to bring in the very best minds and skills, we can incubate ideas and solutions within local and global innovations in transport. That will transcend into tourism, education, environment and sustainability.”
In 1989, Dr Cagle volunteered to be the US Air Force medical liaison officer for the STS-30 Atlantis shuttle mission to test the Magellan spacecraft and she is now using her expertise and experience to help to develop hyperloops around the world.
“There is huge benefit from growth and learning so the academy is very important in cultivating young minds,” she said. “I feel like I’m looking back on impossibility and telling it to catch up.
“This technology is already changing the world by altering the perceptions of young people and their hope for the future.”
There is still some way to go before passengers are flying through vacuum tunnels at 1,200 kilometres per hour in Abu Dhabi, but those at HTT are confident they will be travelling in a pod designed by their experts.
“Creating technology that can be used not just in Brazil, but all over the world is the focus of the innovation centre,” Mr de Leon said.
“It is important for the UAE to understand that we are trying to connect this technology around the world – with Toulouse, Belo Horizonte and Abu Dhabi, where the technology and innovation will be shared.”