Traveler's Edition
Imagine a people-carrying pod that is designed to levitate and travel at extremely high speeds to transport people form place to place. Well, you don’t have to imagine it, it’s real! A team at MIT are working hard to make it a reality and the first tests was a success.
The idea was to create a transport system that propels pods of people through airtight tubes. The MIT team said that this new system is “a mode of transportation that could change how we think about travel.”
The droplet-shaped pod uses magnets to lift itself off an aluminium track and can reach speeds of around 700mph. With that kind of kick, a journey between San Francisco and Los Angeles could take as little as 30 minutes. That’s a much better prospect for travelers than the current 6-7 hour-drive or the flights to Los Angeles that take just under an hour (plus wait lines at security, etc.). Currently teams across the country are running tests with the idea. While the engineers are confident with how the levitation systems work, the brakes need some help and it is very difficult to get the pod to turn.
