South Korea wants its own Hyperloop for high-speed transit
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed a deal to codevelop the future of transit with South Korea. The partnership will see the company working with both the local government, its institute of civil engineering, and Hanyang University. The group will research all aspects of Hyperloop technology, from the tubes themselves through to developing safety regulations determining its use.
That’s not the only news to emerge from the world of Hyperloops either, with Canadian company TransPod signing a deal with Liebherr Aerospace. The latter business designs systems for the aviation industry, amongst other things, and will help TransPod design the thermal systems for its pod. Presumably the pair are concerned about how hot Hyperloop pods would get while in transit.
Recently, too, Hyperloop One threw out a suggestion that it may build its German Hyperloop above the country’s autobahn network. The tube could, theoretically, connect the country’s major cities, from Hamburg and Berlin in the north, through to Munich and Stuttgart in the south. A solar roof above the tubes would provide around 7,000,000 MW/year of energy, theoretically could power the entire loop itself.
The fact that so many countries, from France through to South Korea, are all interested in the Hyperloop bodes well. After all, the international competition may be enough to ensure we get to zoom around in tubes soon, or else plenty of nations will be made to look pretty silly.
Source: TransPod, PR Newswire, Hyperloop One
Uber adds tipping and teen fares to make drivers happy
After weeks of faulty course-correction punctuated with multiple board member resignations, Uber is fighting to win back public approval, starting with its drivers. The company sent an email to all its contractors today promising many overdue features to improve their quality of life, with more to follow in the next 180 days.
First and foremost, riders can finally tip their drivers — at least in Minneapolis, Seattle and Houston starting today, which Uber promises to roll out nationwide by the end of July. Cancellation fees now trigger after two minutes, down from five, and drivers will now get paid to wait for passengers after two minutes of waiting. Drivers also get a $2 bump to the base fare for teen riders, assumedly to make up for having to drive teen riders anywhere. Uber’s also set up optional injury protection insurance and bumped up the per-mile rate to ostensibly make up for the cost.
Drivers are encouraged to restart their Uber apps to see if their area has been rolled into these improvements, which are expanding to all US cities on an undisclosed schedule. This is just the first batch in a series of additions to come once a month for the next 180 days, Uber’s mea culpa states, concluding that we should “Look out for the next round of improvements in July.”
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Uber
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