Uh-oh. Hyperloop One’s Co-Founder and CTO Just Skipped Out

Remember Brogan BamBrogan, the distinctively named CTO and co-founder of the Hyperloop One? For the past several months, the Hyerloop One transportation technology has had an exciting run in the press, in part due to BamBrogan’s efforts. He did a great interview a month ago in which he described the company’s plans to build underwater tunnels someday. Well, today, BamBrogan announced his departure from the company. What happened??

This announcement comes as a surprise because the company’s recent spate of press coverage also coincided with seeming success on the business end of things. On June 21st, Hyperloop One signed a deal to built one of their high-speed transports in Moscow, Russia. Plus they did that test run last May to show off how cool their technology looks, and that seemed to go well. However, as Recode reports in their coverage of BamBrogan’s departure, the company has undergone some “executive shuffling” in the past–albeit no changes as “sudden and far-reaching” as this most recent shake-up.

Given that the company has only been around for a couple of years, and it’s moved pretty darn fast since then (heh), it seems likely that this sudden departure of such a high-profile member of the team will cause some negative shockwaves for would-be investors. Given that BamBrogan himself recently emphasized that more investors were necessary if the technology could ever hope to succeed as well as planned, this all doesn’t seem like a good sign.

All in all, it’s pretty disappointing. I really wanted to ride one of these things! I hope eventually this technology ends up getting used for our benefit, since magnetic propulsion could turn out to be a greener way to travel. But I guess it won’t be happening at as high a speed as originally planned.

(via Ars Technica, image via Hyperloop One)

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