‘Full speed’ ahead for new hyperloop venture
Co-founder of Hyperloop One launches Arrivo in Los Angeles
Putting a contentious lawsuit in his hyperloop pod’s rearview mirror, Brogan BamBrogan is starting a new alt-transportation company with U.S. deployment in his sights.
“The U.S. infrastructure needs some work,” BamBrogan tells USA TODAY, echoing the sentiments expressed by the new administration. “My goal is to get us out of the science fiction and into the real engineering.”
Called Arrivo, Italian for “I arrive,” BamBrogan’s privately funded hyperloop venture, which launched Thursday, includes three other co-founders who were part of a lawsuit filed by the so-dubbed “Gang of Four” against former employer Hyperloop One.
BamBrogan contended he was being harassed, while Hyperloop One countered that the four employees were poaching talent to start a new venture. The lawsuit was settled in November.
“I feel like we have the freedom to run at full speed, which is good for the team and for our families who were feeling the weight of things,” BamBrogan saud. “I want to hit the shower thinking of new technological solutions, not about some legal filing.”
Hyperloop is the name Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave the new form of transportation in a 2014 white paper, which described a bullet-shaped pod traveling inside a vacuum-sealed tube at speeds up to 600 mph.
The idea of turning a six-hour drive between Los Angeles and San Francisco riveted the public, but skeptics have cautioned that financing and regulatory hurdles would be substantial.
Musk was not interested in building a company around the concept, but SpaceX does sponsor a competition to find the best hyperloop pod designs. Hyperloop One, which BamBrogan, a former SpaceX engineer co-founded with Uber investor Shervin Pishevar, is leading the commercial charge.
Arrivo will be based in Los Angeles and is looking to mushroom from a core team of 10 to around 90 by the end of the year. BamBrogan would not disclose the size of the company’s seed invest- ment or its investors, saying only that “it’s a great collection of long-term capital partners.”
The company will look to develop the technological knowhow surrounding a hyperloop pod and tube system and then partner with interested companies, states or countries to implement that tech.
While Hyperloop One has made a point of pursuing a range of feasibility studies in Russia, Scandinavia and the Middle East, Arrivo plans to have more of a domestic focus.
“We’re a U.S. company, developing tech in the U.S., with an aim to create a pipeline of projects in the U.S.,” BamBrogan says. “Sure, we’ll aim to solve transportation problems around the world, but we’d love to see if they can work here.”
So far, the Trump administration has not sketched out its plans to improve the country’s infrastructure, although that promise was a big part of candidate Trump’s message.
In particular, Trump slammed the dilapidated nature of U.S. trains while praising the highspeed variants in Europe and Asia.
Trump also has made broad comments about reducing regulations in a range of sectors, from environmental to financial. BamBrogan said he hoped the government would take a sensible approach to reducing red tape.
“All regulations have the same intent, which is to make things safe. ... So we need just the right regulations, and those are conversations that are starting to be had,” he said.
“I want to hit the shower thinking of new technological solutions, not about some legal filing.” Brogan BamBrogan