On his maiden ride to the Hyperloop, Tanay Manjrekar became the first Indian to ride the innovative journey. With their first successful test drive, Virgin Hyperloop brings a paradigm shift in the means of mass transportation over the last decades. Tanay Manjrekar is a Power Electronics Specialist at Virgin Hyperloop and was pretty ecstatic about his first ride. He further added, “It is my hope that India sees the tremendous opportunity ahead of them to embrace the challenge and leapfrog the rest of the world yet again and continues to progress the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project.”
Los Angles based venture Virgin Hyperloop becomes the first company in the world to successfully test the hyperloop technology. The company used a thorough of electromagnetic levitation and electric propulsion under near-vacuum circumstances. It utilized an all-encompassing hyperloop vehicle system using sophisticated interfaces. The system eventually provides a more efficient alternative of commute with regards to speed, sustainability, reliability, and cost as compared to the current modes of transport. The company is moving ahead with its plan to collaborate with partners, governments, and investors across the world to bring hyperloop into existence.
The company was formed in 2014, with the foresight of futuristic transportation using magnetic levitation. The first people in the world to complete a successful ride of the Virgin Hyperloop were the Director of Passenger Experience Sara Luchian, and Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Josh Giegel. Kilo Design and BIG Bjarke Ingels Group designed the vehicle Pegasus pod used in the voyage. They devised the recently revealed XP-2 vehicle as custom-designed paying attention to the comfort and safety of the passengers. The custom-built model was a 2-seater, specially made to demonstrate the reliability and safety of the hyperloop travel. The model weighed around 2.5 tonnes and almost 15-18 meters in length. The regular vehicle at the production level will be manufactured for 28 passengers.
The Pune native Tanay Manjrekar expressed his enthusiasm through the warm letter to his parents for his first travel. He expressed how this single travel will be revolutionizing the mode of commute in the world. He further shared the rigorous planning and hard work the team put forward and praised for their teamwork and support.
Tanay Manjrekar expressing his gratitude
He said, “Everyone on the team has worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of passengers and we are confident that we have covered all grounds. Before I moved to the U.S. and even when I was in school here, when I spoke about hyperloop, I know it sounded like a far fetched idea…” It is a sure transition from vision to reality for the person who had been wondering about the concept in his schooldays as well. He further expressed his gratitude for being fortunate to work on such a great project and a great team indeed.
Sir Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Hyperloop. He conveyed how meticulously the team worked together to bring the technology into existence for the last few years. Richard further added, “With today’s successful test, we have shown that this spirit of innovation will in fact change the way people everywhere live, work, and travel in the years to come.” The test was conducted on the outskirts of the desert Nevada in the United States at the DevLoop test facility by the Virgin Hyperloop. The test track at the Devloop facility stretches to 3.3 meters in diameter and 500 meters in length.
The company claimed to conduct more than 400 drive tests in the past but without any human passengers.The safety concern and human testing were comprehensively supervised by the accredited organization Independent Safety Assessor (ISA) Certifier.
The XP-2 vehicle carried out an exhaustive and scrupulous process to showcase different safety aspects of the systems. These aspects will be equipped with the commercial hyperloop vehicles along with a modernistic and cutting edge control system. The control provided will be able to detect any unusual conditions, and will instantaneously trigger the necessary emergency system.
