BamBrogan's hyperloop return has U.S. focus
SAN FRANCISCO — Putting a contentious lawsuit in his hyperloop pod's rearview mirror, Brogan BamBrogan is starting a new alt-transportation company with a U.S. buildout in his sights.
"The U.S. infrastructure needs some work," BamBrogan tells Paste BN, echoing the sentiments expressed by the Trump administration. "My goal is to get us out of the science fiction and into the real engineering."
Called Arrivo, Italian for "I arrive," BamBrogan's privately funded hyperloop venture, which launched Thursday, includes three other cofounders who were part of a lawsuit filed by the so-dubbed "Gang of Four" against former employer Hyperloop One.
BamBrogan contended he was being harassed, while Hyperloop One countered the four employees were poaching talent to start a new venture. The lawsuit was settled in November.
"I feel like we have the freedom to run at full speed, which is good for the team and for our families who were feeling the weight of things," said BamBrogan. "I want to hit the shower thinking of new technological solutions, not about some legal filing."
Hyperloop is the name Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave the new form of transportation in a 2014 white paper, which described a bullet-shaped pod traveling inside a vacuum-sealed tube at speeds up to 600 mph.
The idea of turning a 6-hour drive between Los Angeles and San Francisco into a 30 minute Hyperloop ride riveted the public, but skeptics have cautioned that financing and regulatory hurdles would be substantial.
Musk was not interested in building a company around the concept, but SpaceX does sponsor a competition to find the best hyperloop pod designs. Hyperloop One, which former SpaceX engineer BamBrogan cofounded with Uber investor Shervin Pishevar, is leading the commercial charge.
Arrivo will be based in Los Angeles and is looking to mushroom from a core team of 10 to around 90 by the end of the year. BamBrogan would not disclose the size of the company's seed investment or its investors, saying only that "it's a great collection of longterm capital partners."
The company will look to develop the technological know-how surrounding a hyperloop pod and tube system, and then partner with interested companies, states or countries to implement that tech.
While Hyperloop One has made a point of pursuing a range of feasibility studies in Russia, Scandinavia and the Middle East, Arrivo plans to have more of a domestic focus.
"We're a U.S. company, developing tech in the U.S., with an aim to create a pipeline of projects in the U.S.," says BamBrogan. "Sure, we'll aim to solve transportation problems around the world, but we'd love to see if they can work here."
So far, the Trump administration has not sketched out its plans to improve the country's infrastructure, although that promise was a big part of candidate Trump's message. In particular, Trump slammed the dilapidated nature of U.S. trains while praising the high-speed variants in Europe and Asia.
Trump also has made broad comments about reducing regulations in a range of sectors, from environmental to financial. BamBrogan said he hoped the government would take a sensible approach to reducing red tape.
"All regulations have the same intent, which is to make things safe, and I like that I can go into a 40-story building and only have to worry about whether I've put too much sugar in my coffee," he said. "So we need just the right regulations, and those are conversations that are starting to be had."
BamBrogan said Arrivo would, like Hyperloop One, aggressively target cargo transport with its initial technological forays. But the people-carrying aspect of the tech won't lag far behind, he predicts.
"You, me and everyone we know already get into a metal tube and hit supersonic speeds, it's called an airplane," he says with a laugh. "Ultimately, I'm not interested in just building some underground conveyor belt."
Follow Paste BN reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter: @marcodellacava