Hyperloop is a huge transportation project that SpaceX and Tesla owner Elon Musk pitched to the public and made a competition out of. The goal is to create a next-generation transportation system that is ultra-fast and runs on nothing but solar power and physics.
Inside of a vacuum tube, such a transportation system would essentially travel over a pocket or air, and never actually come in contact with the floor to keep friction as low as possible.
There are a number of quandaries that engineers will need to work around, such as creating something that is safe and easy to respond to in case of emergency, but also something that is cost-efficient, and that will actually be useful in terms of getting people from point A to point B.
The idea of Hyperloop-like transportation isn't really new, but this is the first time that such a project might actually come to be. The recent testing of a Hyperloop engine seems to show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that the project could one day become a reality.
Will Hyperloop become the fifth mode of transportation? That's yet to be seen, but it may at least become a novelty ride.
