Afraid of high speeds? Then the phrase “Hyperloop One” will strike terror into your heart.
Hyperloop One is the invention of the California-based company Tesla and its billionaire entrepreneur founder Elon Musk, a starry-eyed conjurer of futuristic utopian visions. Hyperloop One would have travelers interested in drastically reducing their commute time – and cargo in need of rapid delivery – shot through a tube stretching hundreds of kilometers, like darts through a blowgun. It would use magnets to suspend the capsules containing animate or inanimate passengers to cushion them from any and all friction; which is good, because at 1,200 kilometers an hour (faster than an airplane and using 90 percent less energy) any whisper of friction would likely result in vaporization.
In May of last year, Hyperloop announced a competition for the purpose of selecting busy transportation corridors around the world in which to make the Hyperloop a reality. A bushel of 2,600 proposals registered since that time have been pruned down to 35 semi-finalists, including three from Latin America: Buenos Aires-Cordoba, Los Angeles-Ensenada (a third of which is in Mexico) and Guadalajara-Mexico City.
The company responsible for the hitherto-successful GDL-CDMX bid is architecture and industrial design firm FR-EE, founded by architect Fernando Romero, a son-in-law of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
“A special jury selected our proposal because they believe it has a chance of actually becoming a reality,” said Romero. According to him, the region’s vigorous per capita growth and high level of investment in the automotive and aviation industries were the main attributes which prompted FR-EE’s choice of location for their proposal.
It is expected that in the next couple of months the competition will be further narrowed down to six finalists, who will then work closely with Hyperloop in the United States.