If you're used to crawling through traffic in your car or sitting on a slow subway train (remember commuting?), then riding on the Virgin Hyperloop might be too much for you.
On Wednesday, Virgin unveiled an animated rendering of its ultra-high-speed tube system that'll whisk riders between destinations at speeds of more than 700 mph. The concept relies upon floating pods which use magnets and an electric motor to travel through a long tube, hastening trips that would normally require a short flight or long car ride.
There are early discussions for the hyper-fast system to be built in places like Washington, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas in the U.S., as well as in parts of Europe and India.
Virgin envisions thousands of passengers riding the Hyperloop system daily, and boarding at sleek, open-air, modern stations, or portals. Once onboard, passengers (up to 28 can fit in a pod) will chill on business-class style chairs with wireless phone charging nearby, of course. Arrival time and other travel information will be displayed on screens throughout the pod as you're sucked through the tube.
The first available Hyperloop system isn't expected to be complete until 2030. Until then, Virgin Hyperloop will continue testing the tubes with real, human passengers (but keeping the speeds at around 100 mph for now) while building a test track in West Virginia.
