Back in 2013, Elon Musk proposed the idea of shooting capsules through a tube at high speed, soon after that report was published, the dream of Hyperloop One started, and with it originally having the backing of Virgin founder Richard Branson, it quickly got off the ground with even a test track built in the Nevada desert, and a successful passenger ride zipping two company employees along at 107mph for 546yds.
But in 2022, the company suddenly shifted focus saying it would transport cargo instead of people, and soon after that Branson pulled out, and now without the endorsement of Virgin, and history of previous scandals which included their director Ziyavudin Magomedov jailed in Russia on embezzlement charges, and a investor Shervin Pishevar with sexual misconduct allegations, the dreams of high-speed travel underground using magnetic levitation technology, whipping us humans up to 700mph in a tube are now over.
There is still Musk’s own firm, The Boring Company, and few other similar companies around the world researching similar technology, and continuing to work on concept, but none had the mainstream press coverage like Hyperloop One, with major backers like Virgin, so only time will tell if someday we will be zipping across our planet earth in vacuum tubes instead of going to airports and flying in cans with wings.