http://www.popsci.com/hyperloop-pod-competition-announced One such use would be a cargo and mail delivery system that would reduce the effects and on mother nature due to carbon emissions.
I've not seen any indication that the Hyperloop would be particularly green. Propelling stuff up to 800mph is very energy-intensive, after all. Even the high-speed rail technologies available today are many times more expensive than traditional rail options. The Hyperloop would promise to be an order of magnitude more expensive yet. There's really not much reason to move people so quickly over such a relatively small geographical area other than to prove you can do it. Which is to say: it's not practical.
Not everyone wants to sit on a train for hours on end. Some want to get to their destination as quick as possible for what ever reason they want to. It could used to dry harvested crops taken from the field. The fast movement of the crops the hyperloop would dry the crops in half the time it would take a normal crop dryer to dry them out.
It will be a massive construct, difficult to repair cheaply, and failure of just about any kind would be death when you consider the medium, and the speeds involved. It might work well for short distances, but if I have to travel short distances, there are many other far cheaper, far safer options available. I agree with Robert Maxwell, it just doesn't seem practical.
You want to sell this based on the merits of blowing on crops really hard? Investors say "no thanks." There's always a percentage who needs to get there NOW OR ELSE. It's a very small percentage compared to the rest, which means your target market is very small. Investors say "no thanks."
Obviously you have never worked on a farm or operated a combine like I have. Once the crops have been harvested that would be vacuumed through the Hyperloop to a storage facility. I'd you don't dry the crops then the moisture inside of the kernal when coupled with heat that builds up in the layers of the kernals in the back of a hauling truck causes condensation to occur on the kernals causng bacteria to grown ruining them. The vacuum system would syphon the kernals where the velocity of the syphon would dry them out before putting them into storage. If the vacuum velocity wasn't enough then higher temperatures of the vacuum air could created using a heater to heat the air.
Its a question of the cost involved. Are you willing to spend billions of dollars to dry crops? I'm pretty sure there are much cheaper ways.
What makes high speeds energy-intensive is the increased air resistance. The hyperloop operates in a partially evacuated tube and is designed to mitigate the resistance from what little air remains. Furthermore, rolling resistance is eliminated by the pods riding on air rather than wheels. It will be considerably more green than high-speed trains.
Has anyone ever built something like that? Serious question! I don't know. ETA: So I checked and the answer is a resounding "no." I know somebody has to be the first, if it's ever to be done at all, but it seems there haven't even been working prototypes of this concept.
You're right; as far as I know, this is the first system like this and there is yet to be any prototype built. I think the current announcement is find research groups/companies to design and build prototypes based on the concept. To me, the idea seems to have promise and worthy of further exploration, but it's hard to get too excited or optimistic about it without at least a prototype built.
Ira Flatow (Newton's Apple) has this program called Science Friday on NPR. I was listening to the author on a new book about Elon, and he seems to be of the mind that Hyperloop was more of Elon thinking out loud. The biggest problem would be in Earthquake country. Now, you can install P wave quake detectors to slow trains to a halt by the time the S-wave shows up. But at high speeds--if something skews the hyperloop track just a tad, the results will be horrific. I think Elon was hoping to get some of that High Speed Rail money California looks to spend--more money to go to his real projects.
During an Earthquake everything is horrific. Do you stop living because a ten foot troll ate grandma? No you move on. There are a lot of epi centers around the world where people live. People live in Tornado Alley and still continue to build when F5's literally reduce their community to matchsticks. The trill ate grandma then as well and the community moved forward. Look who the troll just threw up. What about combining a Mag Lev track inside of the hyperloop?
I'm not sure why you would want to do that. The point of Mag Lev is to suspend the train in a magnetic field to eliminate the friction of the wheels. The hyperloop pods already ride on a cushion of air, so you would just be trading one low-friction system for another. The only difference is that the replacement would be a lot more expensive to build and operate.
Now a tube can be elevated--it doesn't need cross-ties, so may not be as land intensive. We see more and more mountaintops with cell towers and the like atop them. Hyperloop's key may be to draw upon different sources of backing. Imagine hyperloop atop mountains, with wind turbines and cell tower technology along the base. Service different markets at once.