For more than a year, things haven’t gone as well as expected for the Virgin Hyperloop. So much so that the company dismissed half of its workforce at the end of last week in order to make a strategic transition: the Hyperloop will finally transport goods, not passengers.
In total, 111 employees were dismissed after many months of doubts and internal conflicts.
A painful change
It was to everyone’s surprise that these 111 employees were fired from the Virgin Hyperloop project, this train propelled at more than 1,000 km / h in vacuum tubes which has been the dream of Elon Musk and Richard Bronson for several years. If they knew there would be layoffs, employees did not expect there to be so many, according to the FinancialTimes who was able to chat with some of them.
The reason for these dismissals is the total change in management that transformed the Virgin Hyperloop from a passenger carrier to a freight carrier. Officially, these layoffs are partly due to the many changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortages of components that may have resulted.
We learn that the Emirati group DP World, owned by the state and owning 73% of the shares of Virgin Hyperloop, has been working since 2020 on a freight transport system “ safer and less regulated than passenger transport “, according to their statements and despite a first successful test with humans two years ago. The company is already in contact with 15 potential customers, and Saudi Arabia could invest in infrastructure to link the port of Jeddah to the capital Riyadh.
Source: The Verge
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