BIG-designed virgin hyperloop successfully completes first passenger test

virgin hyperloop has claimed history was made yesterday in the nevada desert, following the first successful passenger ride test of its BIG-designed pod. ‘for the past few years, the virgin hyperloop team has been working on turning its groundbreaking technology into reality,’ said sir richard branson, founder of the virgin group. ‘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.’

images and video by virgin hyperloop

the test took place at virgin hyperloop’s 500 meter DevLoop test site in las vegas, where the company has previously run over 400 unoccupied tests. the first people in the world to ride on this new form of transportation were josh giegel, co-founder and CTO; and sara luchian, director of passenger experience. the two occupants — who look delighted in the pictures — made their maiden voyage on the newly-unveiled XP-2 vehicle, designed by BIG – bjarke ingels group and kilo design.

the test was conducted in a small 2-seater XP-2 vehicle built to demonstrate that passengers can in fact safely travel in a hyperloop pod. the actual production one will be larger and seat up to 28 passengers. having undergone a rigorous and exhaustive safety process, the XP-2 vehicle demonstrates many of the safety-critical systems that will be found on a commercial hyperloop system and is equipped with a state-of-the-art control system that can detect off-nominal states and rapidly trigger appropriate emergency responses.

‘I can’t tell you how often I get asked ‘is hyperloop safe?,’ comments jay walder, CEO of virgin hyperloop. ‘with today’s passenger testing, we have successfully answered this question, demonstrating that not only can virgin hyperloop safely put a person in a pod in a vacuum environment, but that the company has a thoughtful approach to safety which has been validated by an independent third party.’

virgin hyperloop is the only company in the world that has successfully tested hyperloop technology at scale until now.