Pune youth becomes first Indian to ride the Virgin Hyperloop

Hyperloop. Pic/AFP.

Tanay Manjrekar, who hails from Pune is the first Indian to ride the Virgin Hyperloop in the first ever human trials conducted in the world.

"Working on hyperloop 'let alone being one of the first to ride it' is truly a dream come true... It is my hope that India sees the tremendous opportunity ahead of them to embrace the challenge and leapfrog the rest of the world yet again and continues to progress the Pune-Mumbai hyper loop project," said Tanay Manjrekar, Power Electronics Specialist at Virgin Hyperloop.

Virgin Hyperloop is the only company in the world that has successfully tested hyperloop technology at scale, launching the first new mode of mass transportation in over 100 years. The company successfully operated a full-scale hyperloop vehicle using electric propulsion and electromagnetic levitation under near-vacuum conditions, realising a fundamentally new form of transportation that is faster, safer, cheaper, and more sustainable than existing modes. The company is now working with governments, partners, and investors around the world to make hyperloop a reality in years.

Josh Giegel, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience, were the first people in the world to ride the Virgin Hyperloop. The occupants made their maiden voyage on the newly-unveiled XP-2 vehicle, which was custom-built with occupant safety and comfort in mind. While the production vehicle will be larger and seat up to 28 passengers, this 2-seater XP-2 vehicle was built to demonstrate that passengers can in fact safely travel in a hyperloop vehicle.

Tanya penned a heartfelt letter to his parents on his maiden voyage on this pathbreaking mode of transportation, which read, "...I am going to be one of the first occupants in the first functional hyper loop ever developed. I built it and now I will be riding in it... Everyone on the team has worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of passengers and we are confident that we have covered all grounds... Before I moved to the U.S. and even when I was in school here, when I spoke about hyperloop, I know it sounded like a far-fetched idea. But this is as real as it gets! I feel tremendous gratitude for even being able to get an opportunity to work on it..."

"For the past few years, the Virgin Hyperloop team has been working on turning its ground breaking technology into reality," said Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group. Virgin Hyperloop made history as the first people successfully traveled in a hyperloop pod at the DevLoop test facility in the United States. Branson stated, "With todays successful test, we have shown that this spirit of innovation will in fact change the way people everywhere live, work, and travel in the years to come."

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