Verge Staff PayPal and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk has revealed his plans for an alpha version of his much-anticipated Hyperloop. Essentially, it’s a transportation system that would move passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes. Musk’s system works on the same basic principle as an air hockey table, transporting passengers at supersonic speeds with extremely low friction. At the moment it’s a costly concept at around $6 billion for a passenger-only model, but follow along to see if this work of science fiction will ever turn into reality. Oct 3, 2018 The Hyperloop may be heading to Moscow, thanks to a mysterious Russian billionaire Hyperloop One, an LA-based startup working to realize Elon Musk’s dream of 760-mph tube-based transportation, announced today that it struck a partnership with the city of Moscow thanks to the support of a mysterious Russian oligarch. The startup and the Summa Group, a Russian port and oil business owned by billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov, says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Moscow to explore connecting the city’s transportation grid to the Hyperloop. It’s also further evidence that the first Hyperloop is likely to be built in a country other than the US. The announcement that Hyperloop One has found favor in Russia should come as no surprise to those who watch closely the Facebook page of co-founder Shervin Pishevar. On June 16th, Pishevar posted a photo from a meeting he attended with over a dozen wealthy Russian investors and President Vladimir Putin, whom Pishevar noted was particularly enamored with the Hyperloop. “Putin called on me as last word to talk and then responded,” Pishevar wrote. “Spoke on Sherpa, Uber and Hyperloop One. Putin said Hyperloop will fundamentally change the global economy.”