Hyperloop Visits Detroit; Will Auto Talent Make the Jump From Tires to Tubes?

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Hyperloop Technology’s co-founder and chief technology officer Brogan BamBrogan, who is a real person and not a Bond villain living in a volcano lair, choose yesterday’s SEA International Congress talent meetup to push the Elon Musk-conceived technology, Automotive News has reported.

BamBrogan’s company is dangling job opportunities in front of the Detroit crowd in a bid to lure new henchmen auto industry talent into its fold.

The former Chrysler and SpaceX engineer’s message to the Detroit audience was clear. To paraphrase Seinfeld — this technology is real, and it’s spectacular.

“We’re calling this our Kitty Hawk moment,” BamBrogan told them.

There are jobs to be had if auto industry employees want to make the jump. Hyperloop Technologies plans to hire between 180 and 280 engineers between now and the end of next year.

BamBrogan plans to have a two-mile prototype up and running in the Nevada desert later this year to show that pressurized capsules riding on a cushion of air through a near-vacuum is a doable thing. The technology’s anticipated 700 mile-per-hour travel speeds aren’t possible with so short a tube, but you’ve gotta start somewhere.

A functioning hyperloop line is possible by the end of the decade, he insists, though it wouldn’t be a cheap proposition. BamBrogan estimated that a two-way line would cost about $15 million per kilometer, plus land acquisition and station construction costs.

Though the hyperloop concept is Musk’s brainchild, he has his hands full with a few minor ventures that you may have heard of, so he turned the idea loose for others to develop into a reality.

Hyperloop Technologies is one of a small handful of groups pursuing the technology, and has in its ranks a large number of Musk-connected people on its board and engineering team. It also has some startup capital to move it beyond the realm of computers and paper.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is another, and it’s planning both a California line and a European one that would begin in Slovakia. That company has hundreds of engineers from the likes of Boeing and NASA who work on the technology in their off time, trading their time and experience for stock options, not salary.

[Image: Hyperloop Technologies]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • MazdaThreeve MazdaThreeve on Apr 14, 2016

    Make the starting point D.C., and the end point an upward-angled aperture pointed at the Atlantic.

    • See 2 previous
    • Sgeffe Sgeffe on Apr 17, 2016

      @NexWest Wouldn't there be issues with sonic waves tearing that tunnel apart as the projectile passes through it?

  • Von Von on Apr 14, 2016

    What scares me about the hyperloop idea is how failure intolerant it is. One component failure or mistake could cause a major shock to the system of vacuum tubes and people carriers inside. Even assuming it doesn't destroy a section of the track or render it inoperable (very unlikely), a capsule going 700mph in vacuum suddenly hitting a section of air inside a closed tube is enough to cause a major incident.

    • Redmondjp Redmondjp on Apr 14, 2016

      Which is precisely why this idea will never come to fruition.

  • MaintenanceCosts People who don't use the parking brake when they walk away from the car deserve to have the car roll into a river.
  • 3-On-The-Tree I’m sure they are good vehicles but you can’t base that on who is buying them. Land Rovers, Bentley’ are bought by Robin Leaches’s “The Rich and Famous” but they have terrible reliability.
  • SCE to AUX The fix sounds like a bandaid. Kia's not going to address the defective shaft assemblies because it's hard and expensive - not cool.
  • Analoggrotto I am sick and tired of every little Hyundai Kia Genesis flaw being blown out of proportion. Why doesn't TTAC talk about the Tundra iForce Max problems, Toyota V35A engine problems or the Lexus 500H Hybrid problems? Here's why: education. Most of America is illiterate, as are the people who bash Hyundai Kia Genesis. Surveys conducted by credible sources have observed a high concentration of Hyundai Kia Genesis models at elite ivy league universities, you know those places where students earn degrees which earn more than $100K per year? Get with the program TTAC.
  • Analoggrotto NoooooooO!
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