Elon Musk's Hyperloop idea aims to make travel fast, efficient and affordable. But would it be comfortable? While there's been plenty of attention given to how a Hyperloop system might work in real-life, there hasn't been as much attention paid to how the capsules or pods in which people travel would be designed to make the experience more enjoyable.
In Musk's white paper published in 2013, he described the interior of the capsules as designed with "passenger safety and comfort in mind", and that the pods would have personal entertainment systems, but he gave very little other details about what the capsules would look like inside.
For example, where are the bathrooms? Where is baggage stored? Where will the entertainment systems be placed? What will the seats look like?
An Austin-based design consultancy firm called Argodesign set out to address these issues and published a concept design for what the inside of these pods might look like. And while the firm is not associated with Musk or any of the commercial companies planning to build the Hyperloop test tracks, it's designs do provide a glimpse of what traveling via Hyperloop could potentially be like.
Unlike the capsule design that Musk proposed in a 57-page white paper, Argodesign's capsule design would be built to carry both humans and vehicles. However, because it would be larger, it would also travel at lower speeds. Think 300-400 miles per hour as opposed to 700 miles per hour.
The firm designed modular capsules including a vehicle capsule, cargo capsule and passneger capsules. These capsules would be removeable, but when in use, these capsules would be locked into a Hyperloop Sled, which Argodesign describes as a "vehicle chassis".
The design calls for three passenger capsules for coach, business and executive class. Check out the images below to see what the interior of each capsule would look like.
Coach
The coach capsule would look something like the image below, with three seats per row and storeage overhead.
Business Work
The 'business work' capsule holds eight passengers and provides more privacy than the coach capsule. It also features a display screen that curves in front of the passenger seat and a keyboard that slides out so that a passenger can work on the screen or watch a movie.
Executive Meeting
The 'executive meeting' capsule is designed to hold eight passengers and features chairs that are fully automated allowing for the passenger to recline to a sleeping position.
All of the passenger capsules would also feature digital wall screens called 'Tripscenes,' which would display images of things like clouds, pastures and underwater scenes. This is aimed at helping passengers feel more comfortable while traveling through a tube without windows.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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