San Francisco, Dec 22 (IANS): High-speed transportation service Hyperloop One, once backed by billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, is shutting operations on December 31.

The company is selling off its assets, closing down its offices, and laying off employees, reports Bloomberg.

All of Hyperloop One’s intellectual property will shift to its majority stakeholder, major Dubai port operator DP World.

While DP World would keep majority control of the startup, the rest of its assets -- including a test track outside Las Vegas and other machinery -- will be sold.

Virgin Hyperloop was founded in 2014 to make Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's vision of a futuristic transportation system.

Hyperloop is a new transport mode under development to enable high-speed movement of hundreds of people and goods at a time in floating pods through tubes or tunnels above or below the ground.

In 2020, Virgin Hyperloop successfully tested human travel in a hyperloop pod for the first time.

The test took place at the company's DevLoop test track in the desert outside Las Vegas, Nevada and first two passengers were Virgin Hyperloop's CTO and co-founder Josh Giegel and director of passenger experience, Sara Luchian.

The speed at which the hyperloop pod travelled was nearly 160 km per hour during the test but eventually, the goal is to make humans travel via these airless tubes at speeds of up to 1,223 km per hour.

In 2020, the Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru and Virgin Hyperloop announced to jointly conduct a feasibility study to build a hyperloop corridor for high-speed transport between the airport and the city centre.

Then Virgin chief executive Jay Walder had said that a hyperloop-enabled airport will not only allow faster travel, but also create a 21st century passenger experience and expand airport capacity.

--IANS

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