Reddit-Born Engineering Group Buys Leftovers of Failed Hyperloop Startup Arrivo (theverge.com) 10
Reddit-born hyperloop and engineering collective rLoop has bought the intellectual property of Arrivo, a fellow hyperloop startup that went out of business last December, The Verge has learned. rLoop co-founder Brent Lessard confirmed the sale, but he would not disclose how much the group paid. From the report: Lessard said rLoop might try to revive some of the deals that Arrivo had been working on, like a test track outside of Denver, Colorado, and that it may hire back some of Arrivo's former employees. But, Lessard said, rLoop is still only in the "final stages" of assessing the progress Arrivo's employees had made toward developing a type of hyperloop that relies on magnetic levitation (as opposed to the vacuum-based solution that was originally proposed by Elon Musk when he introduced the hyperloop idea in a 2013 white paper).
rLoop was founded in 2015 after SpaceX announced plans to hold a hyperloop competition. Lessard and other members of the SpaceX subreddit eventually pulled together some 140 engineers and designers and became the only non-university team to advance out of the design round and into the final competition where they ultimately won an "innovation award." "We've had a fairly close relationship over the years with Brogan, and we were disheartened when we heard that they were closing up shop," Lessard said. "We were in talks with [Arrivo] since that point to figure out exactly what they've been working on, what was happening with the IP, and so we ended up acquiring it earlier this year." Lessard said rLoop has had "conversations with a number of key [Arrivo] employees" and that "many of them have expressed the desire to see the concept through."
rLoop was founded in 2015 after SpaceX announced plans to hold a hyperloop competition. Lessard and other members of the SpaceX subreddit eventually pulled together some 140 engineers and designers and became the only non-university team to advance out of the design round and into the final competition where they ultimately won an "innovation award." "We've had a fairly close relationship over the years with Brogan, and we were disheartened when we heard that they were closing up shop," Lessard said. "We were in talks with [Arrivo] since that point to figure out exactly what they've been working on, what was happening with the IP, and so we ended up acquiring it earlier this year." Lessard said rLoop has had "conversations with a number of key [Arrivo] employees" and that "many of them have expressed the desire to see the concept through."
eins (Score:1)
To add something actually usefull.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Maglev is a way of suspending and propelling the sled.
Vacuum tunnels are a way of reducing aerodynamic and pumping losses.
Thats like saying you want to evaluate round wheels versus clear windscreens for car transport... they are not competing things!
Doesnt give a lot of confidence in the rest of it, really.
Re: To add something actually usefull.. (Score:2)
There's no way the two could both be of relevant to the same future tech of the 80s (or earlier) transportation at high speeds company.
Re: (Score:3)
Maglev plus vac-tubes... sounds like SwissMetro [wikipedia.org]. Actually, from what I read there, the concept remains active and has since "gone into Hyperloop mode". The original concept goes back to the 70ies!
Re: (Score:3)
Maglev has many advantages though, when comparing these two technologies.
Maglev exists, it works, it's proven. All the engineering issues have been resolved. It can get up to close to hyperloop speeds with a much cheaper track.
Capacity is much higher, hundreds of people per train instead of a dozen per car on Hyperloop. There is a limit to how close you can run the cars for safety reasons, basically (minimum fault detection + braking distance) x (safety margin) so packing more people on to a single train is
Re: (Score:2)
Maglev is a way of suspending and propelling the sled.
Vacuum tunnels are a way of reducing aerodynamic and pumping losses.
Thats like saying you want to evaluate round wheels versus clear windscreens for car transport... they are not competing things!
Doesnt give a lot of confidence in the rest of it, really.
They do compete when the partially evacuated tunnel provides the suspension through aerodynamic forces like with a Winchester head. Hyperloop has no need for magnetic suspension.
Bigger Idiots (Score:3)
It does not surprise me that it took a group of Redditards to step up to the "bigger idiot" challenge of buying something so worthless.
Re: (Score:1)
This PROVES it! (Score:3)
This proves that there's a never-ending supply of suckers with money.
The hyperloop is never going to happen. Stop pretending it will.
Technical, societal, and practical issues mean that it's never going to into any kind of widespread usage, at least not the way they're portraying it now.