Last week, it finally happened: The revolutionary Hyperloop Capsule of the Delft University of Technology team (TU Delft) was unveiled. On the same day, its landing page also went live. At UNITiD, we are crazy about innovation, so you know that we worked on this with a lot of excitement.
Last Thursday, Henk Kamp, Minister of Economic Affairs, unveiled the revolutionary Delft Hyperloop. With this transport capsule, the Delft team will compete against 30 other teams late this summer, during the finals of the American competition held by Elon Musk, the creator of Tesla and SpaceX.
National pride
During the unveiling ceremony, Minister Kamp expressed how proud he was of the Delft team. He referred to the Delft Hyperloop as an example of ‘world-class innovation’. In the future, this new means of transportation could encourage economic growth and strengthen the competitive power of the Netherlands by making transportation faster, more efficient, and more sustainable.
The road to the finals
As the finals are approaching, a 1.6 kilometer experimental tube is under construction in California, which the Hyperloop capsules will soon be racing through, one by one. Experts from Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and a number of professors will be testing the design and performance of the capsules during the finals.
Of course, the Delft Hyperloop team will be throwing all their energy into the project in the coming months to win the finals. And things look quite promising for them! After the impressive presentation last week and the overwhelmingly positive response, it seems that the team from Delft has a good chance of winning the competition.
Quick, safe and comfortable too
While the students spent the past few months devising ideas for a capsule that races quickly and safely through the tube, we at UNITiD wondered about the passenger experience inside the capsule. Why is that so important? “People will still want to look out the window, even though the Hyperloop will be travelling at 1200 kilometers per hour,” says Hyperloop team member, Tijmen Veldhoen.
We came up with calming visualizations for the virtual screens that will run along the entire length of the capsule. These ‘virtual windows’ will ensure a natural and calm mode of transport.
When departing, travelers will see images of the city that they are leaving. As soon as the train reaches cruising speed, animations with calming colors will appear. These are to prevent any claustrophobic sensations. The animations on the upper edge form lines that run along the entire length of the capsule. These indicate the speed of the vehicle. Travel information can also be displayed here, such as larger towns and cities that are being passed, or the speed in kilometers per hour. Is the final destination in sight? Then the color visualizations will change to images of the city of arrival.
Each passenger can access an individual screen from their comfortable, ergonomic chairs, which were designed by interior designers at TU Delft. All kinds of information can be shown via these screens, such as weather forecasts, local events at the final destination, and practical information about the journey itself. Speed and arrival time, for instance.
The entire experience on one page
In addition to collaborating with the Delft Hyperloop team for improving the passenger experience in the capsule, we also helped them tell their story. Since this kind of topic often feels more like science fiction than reality to people, it was important that we told the story in a way that was understandable for everyone. For this reason, we collaborated with front-end developers, De Voorhoede, to create a landing page that utilizes visual storytelling. INDG added a number of impressive 3D renderings.
Check out the result at the Delft Hyperloop website.
