Official

Elon Musk's Hyperloop idea still in motion

After teasing the concept in 2012, Tesla CEO Elon Musk released some thoughts on a high-speed transportation project called the Hyperloop in 2013. He then promptly renounced any claim on the idea and said he would not actually build the open source project. The hyperloop didn't die, though, and is still attracting new brainpower.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies was officially formed with a JumpStartFund late last year, a few months after Musk made the concept public. The company has since grown into a collective of about 100 engineers who have full-time gigs with companies such as Boeing, Airbus, NASA and, of course, Musk's own SpaceX, Wired says. Some students at UCLA are taking part in the design process, which is detailed in a new "crowdstorm" document.

The idea behind the Hyperloop is to build above-ground tubes where passenger capsules devoid of friction (with the help of either air compression or magnetic levitation) can travel up to 800 miles per hour between cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. The HTT collective is already talking about having economy- and business-class capsules.

The good news is that the group says the early predictions for Hyperloop remain realistic. That means a timeframe of about a decade to complete the first system with a price tag of between $6 billion and $10 billion is still on the table. For now, at least.
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Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. Announces New Designs, Crowdstorming Document and Core Team

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Dec. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. powered by JumpStartFund announced today the crossing of major milestones, bringing the company closer to the goal of creating a working high speed mass transit system. These milestones include the finalization of the company's 100 core team members and the publishing of a new crowdstorm document.

Recently acquiring its 100 core team members, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is powered by the unique collaboration platform JumpStartFund. These 100 members are professionals, engineers and designers from some of the most esteemed organizations on the planet, including Boeing, Airbus, NASA, Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, and others, collaborating globally in the U.S., Asia, Australia and Europe.

The company released a new crowdstorm document expanding on concepts and sharing the most recent developments produced by the company. Highlights from the paper include a detailed cost, route and safety analyses.

"This document updates the public at large while allowing us to brainstorm with the crowd on other innovative solutions," said JumpStartFund CEO Dirk Ahlborn. "We believe crowdstorm initiatives like this one represent the future of how big ideas will become reality."

In August of 2013, famed entrepreneur Elon Musk presented his concept for The Hyperloop to the world in a white paper posted on the Tesla Motors and SpaceX blogs, asking the global tech community to step up to make the project a reality. JumpStartFund heeded the call and soon after announced the formation of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. on its unique crowdsource platform which contracts with top professionals in relevant industries to develop and bring projects from concept to reality.

About Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc.
Founded by JumpStarter Inc. utilizing JumpStarters crowdfunding and crowd collaboration platform JumpStartFund. The company has assembled a team of high-level engineers and contributing corporations which include ANSYS for computer simulation sources, GloCal Network Corporation and UCLA : Architecture & Urban Design for considering social interface of the Hyperloop project.

About JumpStartFund
El Segundo, CA-based JumpStartFund is a crowd-powered incubator that allows entrepreneurs to build communities of experienced professionals around their projects. Both an equity and rewards-based crowd platform, JumpStartFund helps startup companies and a wide variety of projects. Using the disruptive power of the crowd to vote, comment and contribute on ideas in development, the platform is designed to help create companies that might not have been. Founding members have been part of the Girvan Institute of Technology, a non-profit, public benefit corporation chartered to facilitate the transfer, development and commercialization of technologies, and to foster the growth of early-stage high-tech companies. JumpStartFund's primary mission is to help both entrepreneurs and investors leverage the power of the Internet to make it easier for companies to succeed. For more information, please visit www.jumpstartfund.com.

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