Virgin Hyperloop One Shows Off New Futuristic Travel Pod (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: It's an interesting time for Virgin Hyperloop One, which saw one of its board members arrested on fraud and embezzlement charges in Russia last week and three other high-profile directors departing the board, according to Bloomberg. But that hasn't stopped the futuristic-transport startup from showing off its latest pod prototype, first for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and now for the rest of us via the video above. The charges faced by Russian billionaire and board member Ziyavudin Magomedov are reportedly unrelated to Virgin Hyperloop One, and he is appealing the arrest. The video from Virgin above appears to show a full-size pod prototype on an enclosed test track at the company's test facility in Nevada. How fast it's going is hard to say. So far we've seen the company achieve speeds of 240 miles per hour in tests, or roughly a third of the speed it hopes to eventually achieve.

Comments

Re:Spam in a can.

[mschwanke97402]

Travel like "SPAM in a can."

Packed into a windowless pod surrounded by near vacuum with no means of escape if something fucks up. Claustrophobia city, even if there are nice flatscreens to "view" the outside world. If this is the future, then bugger the future with a turbocharged chainsaw.

So, if you didn't get a windows seat, this is just like your last plane flight? Oh, except that you don't plummet 30,000 feet to a certain death when something "fucks up".

kiss of death

[niittyniemi]

If the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is interested in it, then I'm not.

His track record is not good:

• Building new city in Saudi at vast expense to attract businesses and tourists. Pitch: "If getting hanged and flogged is your bag then you're coming to the right place!"
• Started never ending war in Yemen with resulting starvation, huge cholera epidemic and attendant death and destruction from high explosive supplied by US and UK.
• Kidnapped Lebanon's leader and made him resign on Saudi TV.
• Kidnapped 300 of the wealthiest and most powerful in the country and shook them down. Result: turned them into 300 slightly poorer but still powerful enemies.
• Came to London and spunked a million quid on adverts featuring his gurning face and telling us British peasants how wonderful Saudi now is thanks to him. We may be fucking stupid but please...
• Has invested 750 million in Virgin Galactica (aka virgin on the ridiculous) Branson's doomed "space" effort that isn't close to orbital.
• Opening dozens of cinemas in Saudi although 'Snow White' likely to be banned. Some tart without a burkha sleeping with 7 dwarves? Are you sure?

Tl;Dr: MbS is a moron and bellend. Hence, Virgin Hyperloop must be doomed.