In the classic television show “The Jetsons,” father George brought his kids to school in tiny capsules in the year 2062.
Soon, we might be able to travel via capsule, too.
Packed commuter trains could very well be replaced with sleek and small capsules traveling through a network of low grade vacuum tubes. It sounds far-fetched, but the idea and its implementation is already being explored.
Daryl Oster is the founder and CEO of ET3, a company dedicated to developing enhanced tube transport technologies. According to his company, ET3 is a form of lightening fast tube transportation.
“Networked like freeways, the capsules are automatically routed like Internet traffic, yet a capsule can exit at any desired portal,” the company says. “Car sized passenger capsules travel in 1.5m (5′) diameter tubes on frictionless maglev…Linear electric motors accelerate the capsules, which then coast through the vacuum for the remainder of the trip using no additional power.”
This form of tube transportation would be faster than any high speed rail–getting a passenger from downtown Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 30 minutes. Oster joins us to explain the technology behind these tubes, and what they mean for the future of American transportation infrastructure.