Hyperloop One shuts down
Hyperloop One, the sci-fi mass-transit system pitched by Elon Musk and Richard Branson, is finished. The company is shutting down, laying off most of its employees, and liquidating assets.
Once a high-profile startup, Hyperloop One raised more than $450 million since its founding in 2014, according to PitchBook. It built a small test track near Las Vegas to develop its transportation technology, and for a time took the name Virgin Hyperloop One after Richard Branson's Virgin invested. Virgin removed its branding after the startup decided last year to focus on cargo rather than people.
Bloomberg News's headline–"After Failing to Reinvent Transit"–is interesting because Hyperloop impressed national politicians, municipal technocrats, and the sort of media that poses billionaires as visionary geniuses. It limited the prospects for traditional mass transit while Musk sold cars.
DMT.NEWS
via https://www.DMT.NEWS
Rob Beschizza, Khareem Sudlow
