1
Overview Founded in 2015, TransPod is designing the world s leading hyperloop system to make ultra-high-speed ground transportation a reality. TransPod s system will move people faster, with dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use. Based on aerospace engineering innovations, TransPod s 1000km/h passenger vehicle system will bring about a new, convenient, reliable mode of transportation, to virtually shrink distances and connect people, cities, and businesses. Target markets The TransPod hyperloop will serve both the passenger and cargo transportation markets, with a focus on countries challenged by aging infrastructure, high-density populations, and a need for transportation innovation. Global expertise TransPod Inc. has offices in Canada, France, and Italy, and works with a global partner network of industrial leaders in the aeronautics, space, rail, and infrastructure industries. Collaborating with this expertise, TransPod is re-inventing tubetransportation from the ground up. Key differentiators TransPod takes a physics-first and engineering-first approach to our design. We re not using pre-existing concepts of hyperloop, and we re not crowdsourcing or harvesting ideas and trying to make them fit with each other. We re developing every aspect of a new tube-transportation system, from design to systems engineering, from the ground up, all in-house and with our partners. With a focus on first-in-the-world designs and technological breakthroughs, all aspects of the vehicle, infrastructure, and passenger experience are designed to work together seamlessly, with high reliability, safety, and operational robustness. 2
TransPod s system is designed for global impact, providing a strong business case and significant climate benefits. It is designed for adaptable deployment and customization for different cities, station configurations, and public/private infrastructure consortium partners worldwide. Partners 3
Inside TransPod Funding In November 2016, TransPod announced the closing of a seed round for $15 million USD from Angelo Investments. We re continuing to invest in research, product development, and global growth. We ve secured patents for our innovative designs, and are expanding our growing network of global industry partners. Over the next few years, we ll continue working with governments, partners, and investors to bring hyperloop to life. Technologies TransPod s new research and technologies are combined with concepts and designs from the aerospace industry. Many subsystems, such as the vehicle structure, control systems, and vehicle dynamics, are very similar to what we can find on an aircraft. Railway technologies are also being adapted, including communication, signaling, and energy management. Much of the work we re doing integrates these existing technologies with our own proprietary designs to create this new high-speed transportation system. Executive leadership Sebastien Gendron Co-founder and CEO, TransPod Sebastien founded TransPod in 2015 and brings more than 13 years of experience leading engineers at global transportation manufacturers, including Bombardier, Safran S.A., and Airbus Group. He holds a master s degree in aerospace engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO and Aix Marseille University in France. 4
Ryan Janzen Co-founder and CTO, TransPod Ryan Janzen is a scientist and entrepreneur, featured on the Discovery Channel, Wired magazine, and Through the Wormhole. Janzen's innovations have created entirely new fields of research, including veillance flux, extramissive optics, swarm modulation, and the world's first aircraft PLC research. His work has led to advances in acoustics, aerospace electronics, mathematics, and vehicle propulsion. Janzen is co-founder and CTO of TransPod, designing a next generation of ultra-high-speed aerospace vehicles. Janzen is the chief architect of the multi-billion-dollar future system: transportation infrastructure, operations, aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, and the passenger experience. 5
The TransPod network What is it? TransPod is designing a new 5th mode of transportation, beyond ships, trains, automobiles, and planes. As envisioned by aerospace pioneer Robert Goddard, as well as SpaceX s Elon Musk who introduced the term hyperloop, TransPod is developing a cutting-edge novel design for a next-generation transportation system to reach velocities faster than airline travel. This ground-based mass transportation system is based on low-pressure tubes carrying TransPod vehicles for reduced air resistance, and less friction. TransPod s system is designed to give passengers and goods a low-priced, frequentdeparture transportation service without the need for jet fuel, at speeds exceeding 1000km/h. Powered by environmentally-sustainable solar/electric energy in a system that is unaffected by weather conditions, TransPod s system enables passenger and cargo travel that is faster than airline travel, creating an attractive choice for consumers, a high-potential investment opportunity for infrastructure investors, and a reliable mass transportation system. Why do we need it? Current modes of transport --- such as cars, trucks, trains and aircraft --- are slow, inefficient, congested, fossil-fuel dependent, polluting, and vulnerable to weather conditions. TransPod s system provides an attractive choice for consumers in terms of speed, convenience and price (compared to airline tickets and high-speed rail tickets). It also achieves significant government policy objectives: reducing highway congestion and maintenance, reducing carbon emissions, being fully-electric and fossil-fuel-free, and increasing economic activity through rapid intercity commerce. 6
Benefits Speed The TransPod vehicle is designed for speeds exceeding 1000 km/h, with a maximum speed of 1200 km/h. Faster than a jet, and many times faster than high-speed rail (150350 km/h), the experience of sitting on the TransPod vehicle will feel like accelerating smoothly on a jet runway, and then coasting at full speed inside the tube guideway. TransPod s advanced control systems allow a smooth ride, where passengers can avoid the turbulence and storms experienced on jet airlines, since the tube environment provides shelter from outside weather. Instead of driving in a car for six hours between cities over 500 km apart (such as Toronto to Montreal), a TransPod trip arrives in as little as 45 minutes, and less time for cities that are closer together. Convenient passenger transportation Airline passengers already suffer while paying high ticket prices. Rather than planning a trip weeks in advance, being bumped from flights, experiencing turbulence, storms, flight cancellations, delays, diversions, and lost luggage, TransPod s system offers a European-style high-frequency train experience, where passengers can simply show up at a station whenever it s convenient, buy a ticket, and wait a few minutes for the next TransPod vehicle to depart. High-speed delivery of goods E-commerce, businesses, and just-in-time industrial processes will benefit, from sameday deliveries for industrial/commercial shipping, and urgent business parcel delivery (in certain cases, same-hour). Besides manufacturing and business shippers, another key market is agricultural and food product industries -- reducing spoilage caused by low-speed trucking. 7
Reduced greenhouse gas emissions TransPod s fully-electric system is designed to be linked to the regional electrical grid. Rather than burning fossil fuels on the vehicles, power from substations is delivered to the TransPod vehicles inside the tube infrastructure. This takes advantage of highefficiency power plants (and solar/wind as locally generated), rather than individual inefficient engines as in cars and airplanes. Fossil-fuel free Eliminates fuel waste of an airline jet ascending to altitude. Most of a jet s fuel is burned at the start of a flight; hence the high airline ticket prices. TransPod vehicles will run nearly-horizontally, thus avoiding this major inefficiency and operating cost of jets. Mass transportation TransPod will provide mass transportation to reduce highway congestion between major cities, and to reduce economic losses due to traffic delays and the time wasted driving slowly at only 100 km/h. Weather factors Inside the protected tube environment, TransPod vehicles are unaffected by weather conditions such as rain, snow, fog, turbulence, sand, or storms. 8
Additional Details Capacity TransPod designs for capacity and passenger demand on each transportation corridor. For example, the initial system design for the Toronto- Montreal corridor has a capacity of 12 million passengers per year, and is expandable to higher volumes. Freight vehicles can travel on the same line as passenger vehicles, and this is adjusted according to the requirements of each line operator. TransPod s system is designed to be customizable (specific line configuration, throughput, turnaround requirements and dwell times), and extendable, by twinning the infrastructure for more capacity, and purchasing different vehicle models as freight and passenger demand increase. Ticket prices Because of TransPod s efficient technology and significantly lower cost from MagLev systems, the tickets are able to be much lower and more accessible to all users. Ticket prices will depend on the route, but TransPod s current projections are priced at a lower rate than air travel and freight, while offering faster delivery times and less environmental harm than jets. 9
Gallery 10