Stuck in traffic over the Thanksgiving holidays? Hyperloop One sees you, and it’s laughing at you. The California-based company, which is aiming to bring Elon Musk’s vision of a vacuum-sealed superfast train to life, posted a tweet Friday subtly jabbing at the stalled cars on the 405 highway the previous night.
The message appears to be that the Hyperloop would solve these traffic issues, with a train that would allow people to whizz from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just 35 minutes. Sounds great, right?
The problem is, those cars are real things that exist in the real world. The Hyperloop, contrary to what some may tell you, does not exist. Not in any practical way. Those commuters haven’t consciously chosen to avoid the Hyperloop. They probably would take the Hyperloop, if that were an actual thing open to real people.
At least things will be better when the Hyperloop is built, right? Not so fast. Hyperloop One’s initial projects are focused on the cargo industry, studying how the technology can improve business. In August, the company partnered with DP World to research how Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, the busiest in the world, could be improved by Hyperloops. This approach has been criticized by experts that question why cargo needs to move at high speed, but either way, the money points to inanimate objects as the first passengers for the high-speed trains.
That’s not to say the technology wouldn’t solve these traffic woes. But if you’re driving on the 405, waiting for that Hyperloop to come solve your holiday woes, you’re probably going to be waiting a long time.
