Ahlborn has been bullish on beating the competition to get a full-scale hyperloop line, even as companies like Elon Musk’s Boring Company and Virgin Hyperloop One have moved ahead with their own tests and regulatory steps. Virgin Hyperloop, for example, said that a feasibility study showed a potential hyperloop route connecting the Missouri cities of Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis would be commercially viable and safe, a crucial first step. Musk recently showed off an underwhelming Los Angeles tunnel and has touted the viability of several potential hyperloop lines there, in Chicago, Maryland and elsewhere. HyperloopTT’s test track in France gives it a technological leg up by showing how passenger and shipping containers will work on a test track. The company also partnered with the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency on a feasibility study of a Chicago-to-Cleveland route, on top of its partnership with Abu Dhabi, where the first commercial track is on pace to open. Given all the unknowns — especially the lack of real-world tests — hyperloop systems are still a ways off. In his CNBC interview, Ahlborn admitted “the big hurdle is the regulatory framework,” and that “there are no laws that regulate it.” As companies move closer in the coming years, those regulatory discussions are likely to heat up, but could also delay passenger use. “We need to make sure that the safety standards are in place, that everything is tested and you have your safety records, so it just takes a little to get that done, and of course you have to work with governments around the world to create these safety standards,” Ahlborn said.
California-based firm Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (Hyperloop TT) could begin commercial services as soon as 2022, if safety standards are in place, according to CEO Dirk Ahlborn. Hyperloop TT, which began work on the first full-scale system last year in France, recently brought its first passenger capsule to the country. Speaking to CNBC, Ahlborn said the biggest obstacle to hyperloop commercialisation was the lack of a regulatory framework and the time required to create it.