The First Hyperloop Will Take Place in Israel, 2015

We’ve been closely following Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project for months now. Musk first mentioned the project via Twitter back in July, hinting that the transport system would be “twice as fast as what an average aircraft can do.”

The project is one of the many initiated by Musk, millionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and while currently existing only as design documents, GeekTime reports that it will see its first actual construction in 2015.

But, whereas Musk has previously mentioned he’d like to see it in California, it’s now being reported that the project will see the light of day in the State of Israel.

The project will be the the result of a collaboration between Israel’s Ministry of Transportation, Better Place, and Japanese Taigo. The loop will cost some $10 billion, and its first route will run from Tel Aviv to Eilat, in seven minutes, no less!

Musk, who visited Tel Aviv a dozen times in the last two years – in his private plane- held talks with Transportation Minister Yisraeli Katz, with the Ministry of Transportation agreeing that Taigo will undertake the project due to its technological aspects.

While the exact details of the route could not be published, Geektime learned that the beta period of the project will see an actual driver supervise the train, with this ending in November 2015 and the route becoming completely automatic. The Hyperloop is based on pods that hold 10 passengers, with 10 pods leaving the station every 30 seconds (meaning 100 passengers every 30 seconds), taking 7:06 minutes to travel to Eilat, and 7:07 to travel back.

No more one-hour flights, no more 6-hour drives.

The Hyperloop, in theory, can travel at a max speed of 1,280 mph, although in practice, the pods would not reach that speed given the short distance. Geektime also found that the Japanese staff would be working on ‘drones,’ developed by the French company Parrot, that would work instead of train attendants, serving food, drinks, and nausea medicine, should it be needed.

I’m surprised Google and/or Mark Zuckerberg are not involved.

The beta period is reportedly slated to begin in 2015 and travelers wishing to take part will be able to do so by signing up via a dedicated webpage. The service will be advertised both locally in Israel, and abroad.

Yes. This was originally an April Fool’s joke from GeekTime. We may be a few days late, but couldn’t resist.