Forgot to buy a gift for your mum’s birthday and she’ll be home in 30 minutes? No panic!
Forget the plane, forget the high-speed train and of course forget your car and get in the Hyperloop that will whisk you from London to Manchester in 12 minutes. This mind-boggling futuristic transport system is capable to speed at up to 760mph (1,223kph).
The founders want to fix transportation around cities where people are commuting for long hours to get from one city to another. They want to make it possible to be in any city around in 10 minutes. This is one of the latest innovation after the self-driving cars, flying cars and electric fine vehicles to solve this problem and redesign cities around people, not cars, and make them green and clean like an organic entity.
For Josh Giegel, co-founder of Hyperloop One, an original idea from Elon Musk, we shouldn’t live in a world where wars exist, where people are battling for resources.
Hyperloop is created to ‘make the world a village again’, he says.
Speaking at the Websummit 2016 in Lisbon, Giegel says: ‘We are all one human race; if we can be together, live together in a peaceful way, our economy becomes tight together.’
The first Hyperloop will connect Dubai to Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes instead of 2h30 today. Why Dubai rather than San Francisco? The UAE is run like a big start-up and they are always up for the next gigantic experimentation. Dubai has already realised some crazy mega projects such as getting off the ground Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Plus the tight regulations in the Californian state would have caused more than one sleepless night; just look at what happened this week to the Uber self-driving car.
Hyperloop aims to solve the 400-mile problem and make commuting from one city to the next a faster and seamless experience, just like taking a lift.
In the short video below, the Hyperloop creators explain their vision for the future of mobility, how they connect people to the autonomous space and get people door-to-door, faster than ever before.
Once more, the disruption of an industry, is driven by a technology company rather than the incumbents. This is about moving things and people faster. So why the transportation industry like SNCF, the French railway company, or British railway or even the airline industry didn’t come up with this idea?
Well, they are busy running their operations and thinking inside the box that such crazy idea is unlikely to crop up or more likely risk being quickly discarded.
Yet the implications are huge. If this project succeeds, the Hyperloop founders’ goal is to offer cargo and people transportation, which will reduce inventory warehouse, move things faster and rethink boundaries where economies become more united. In the Hyperloop world, Amazon 1-day delivery could be 1-hour delivery or less. Knowing that most of the ports are at full capacity today, a Hyperloop will enable cities to build offshore facility.
And candidates are lining up, eager to embark early on such a revolution. Next after Dubai are Finland and Denmark who want their own Hyperloop.
For the sceptics, this project is useless, dangerous for the health of people to travel in a closed tube. They also view it as a target for terrorist attacks and unlikely to become a reality. It’s not that uncommon for paradigm shifting projects to encounter such a scepticism but the team is on its way and expect to start the first tests next year.
When asked what keeps him awake at night, surprisingly Giegel says it’s not the technology but … people!
‘Do I have the right people at the right place,’ he asks himself again and again.
His top 5 advice for entrepreneurs and dreamers:
- ‘Now is the time to go after moonshots ideas’. Access to capital has never been easier and talented people can be found.
- Nothing is impossible. Elon Musk has been an inspiration by shifting the paradigm of what possible means.
- Dive fully. Walk into it. You’ve got to commit to it.
- Find a co-founder with the right values. Choose people well, get to know them well, keep your standard high, don’t compromise in business but in personal life too.
- Surround yourself with value creators not value extractors.
And you? What is your moonshot idea for 2017?
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About Francine Beleyi
Francine Beleyi is bilingual French-English, international digital and change consultant, entrepreneurial journalist & speaker who helps corporate executives, entrepreneurs and organisations, to adapt and thrive in the digital age.
Francine spends her days speaking with and studying the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders in the new economy, and sharing her findings with her clients and those who want to understand and master the new rules for business growth.
She has worked across EMEA, for major corporations like TOTAL, BNPPARIBAS, AXA and also for not for profit organisations and small businesses. She holds a Master’s degree in organisation consulting and change management, a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance, a degree in computer science and an NCTJ diploma in multimedia journalism.
Visit |nucleusofchange | @FrancineBeleyi.