Dirk Ahlborn

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Norway --- Woman Looking Out Train Window --- Image by © Julius/CORBIS

If Hyperloops are built and become part of the public infrastructure, they won’t have actual windows but virtual ones. It’s not as horrifying as Sky Deutschland’s “Talking Windows” concept which can beam advertisements inside the heads of travelers using a bone-conduction technology, but the “augmented” scenery we’ll look at will be a step removed from real. It’s a progression of us being even deeper inside the machine.

From Liz Tracy at Inverse:

Any claustrophobe looks at the tube and asks: “Are there are no windows?! How will be breathe?” Well, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Dirk Ahlborn, addressed the issue of “passenger experience” at his “Crowdsourcing the Hyperloop” presentation during South By Southwest Interactive on Sunday in Austin.

Ahlborn announced that though there won’t be actual windows, virtual ones are planned for the hyperloop.

The CEO called them “interactive panels” with which you can “look out” at “motion capture technology.” This will allow you to see what it actually looks like outside. “Based on your position, we’re actually manipulating the image,” Ahlborn said. He showed a short video which defined them as “augmented windows,” which also seem to show how fast you’re going and at which spot you’re at in the loop.

“It’s psychologically really important and great to have the possibility to look out the window,” Ahlborn noted, but also it’s about a generally enhanced customer experience.•

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The Hyperloop might be built and might be free if it is built. Developers of Elon Musk’s futuristic transportation system are seeking ways to vanish customer costs since it will have to be heavily traveled if it’s to become a large-scale success. 

From Katie Collins at Wired UK:

Even though Hyperloop’s pricing consultants estimate a ride will cost twice the price of a plane ticket, [CEO Dirk] Ahlborn is keen to avoid this situation. “We want to make it something you use every single day many times,” he says. He is even debating whether “ticketing is best way of monetising, or are there other ways to make money?”. 

“I really, strongly believe that if we create a hyperloop network and it’s free — in the off-peak times at least, in peak times we would charge a little bit  — but we make money in other ways, that will really change how people live.”

There are already some options for this; for a start, the system works on 100 percent renewable energy, and actually will make more energy than it needs. As such, says Ahlborn, “we will actually be able to sell the energy.” He’s also looking for ideas for alternative ways in which the Hyperloop might be able to make money.•

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