Ousted Hyperloop Execs Launch Rival Firm

Brogan BamBrogan and several other former Hyperloop One Inc. (H1) executives have launched a rival company called Arrivo that is developing its own high-speed transportation system.

BamBrogan co-founded H1 in 2014. He and three other managers were forced out of the company last summer. Counter lawsuits between the groups were settled in November.

Located about a mile away from H1’s Los Angeles headquarters, Arrivo promises a unique but unspecified take on the hyperloop concept, which Tesla Inc. and SpaceX founder Elon Musk outlined in 2013. The system features a pod levitated by magnets and accelerated on a cushion of air by linear induction motors and air compressors in a partial-vacuum tube at speeds as fast as 760 mph.

BamBrogan says Arrivo (Italian for “you’ve arrived”) is in talks with potential partners around the world, but he emphasizes that the company’s initial focus is on the U.S. To date, H1 and rival startup Hyperloop Transportation Technologies have targeted international deals with partners in Europe and the Middle East.

IArrivo includes four other H1 expats in addition to BamBrogan. Other founding staffers include Jadon Smith, a former senior engineer at SpaceX, and Andrew Liu, former senior vice president of AECOM, the company that constructed a mile-long hyperloop test track at the SpaceX campus.

The startup aims to hire 30 more engineers by June and have 80 employees by year-end.