Virgin Hyperloop successfully demonstrates first passenger travel with hyperloop pod

According to Virgin Hyperloop (Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) it made transportation history on Nov. 8 when it sucessfully tested human travel in a hyperloop pod for the first time. 

“For the past few years, the Virgin Hyperloop team has been working on turning its ground breaking technology into reality,” says Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. “With this successful test, we have shown that this spirit of innovation will in fact change the way people everywhere live, work, and travel in the years to come.”

According to the company, Josh Giegel, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience, were the first people in the world to ride on this new form of transportation. The test took place at Virgin Hyperloop’s 500-meter DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the company has previously run more than 400 unoccupied tests.

“When we started in a garage over six years ago, the goal was simple — to transform the way people move,” says Josh Giegel. “This was one giant leap toward that ultimate dream, not only for me, but for all of us who are looking towards a moonshot right here on Earth.”

“I can’t tell you how often I get asked ‘is hyperloop safe?’ With today’s passenger testing, we have successfully answered this question.”

The occupants reportedly made their maiden voyage on the newly-unveiled XP-2 vehicle, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG, Denmark) and Kilo Design (Copenhagen, Denmark) which was custom-built with occupant safety and comfort in mind. While the production vehicle will be larger and seat up to 28 passengers, Virgin Hyperloop says, this two-seater XP-2 vehicle was built to demonstrate that passengers can in fact safely travel in a hyperloop vehicle.

“Hyperloop is about so much more than the technology. It’s about what it enables,” adds Sara Luchian. “To me, the passenger experience ties it all together. And what better way to design the future than to actually experience it first-hand?”

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop, watched this historic passenger testing first-hand. “I had the true pleasure of seeing history made before my very eyes — to witness the first new mode of mass transportation in over 100 years come to life,” he says. “I have always had tremendous faith in the team at Virgin Hyperloop to transform this technology into a safe system, and now we have done that. We are one step closer to ushering in a new era of ultra-fast, sustainable movement of people and goods.”

The testing campaign, from the beginning stages all the way through to the successful demonstration, was overseen by the industry-recognized Independent Safety Assessor (ISA) Certifer. Having undergone a rigorous and exhaustive safety process, the XP-2 vehicle is said to demonstrate many of the safety-critical systems that will be found on a commercial hyperloop system and is equipped with a state-of-the-art control system that can detect off-nominal states and rapidly trigger appropriate emergency responses.

“I can’t tell you how often I get asked ‘is hyperloop safe?’” says Jay Walder, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop. “With today’s passenger testing, we have successfully answered this question, demonstrating that not only can Virgin Hyperloop safely put a person in a pod in a vacuum environment, but that the company has a thoughtful approach to safety which has been validated by an independent third party.”

This announcement, says the company, builds off of significant momentum on the regulatory front. In October 2020, Virgin Hyperloop unveiled West Virginia as the location for the Hyperloop Certification Center (HCC). In July 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Elaine Chao and the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council unveiled the guidance document on a clear regulatory framework for hyperloop in the United States. 

Virgin Hyperloop is confident that this federal momentum, combined with the advancements at the HCC and the historic safety demonstration achieved with this test will pave the way for the certification of hyperloop systems around the world, and become a key step towards commercial projects.