hyperwhoop-blog

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Give a man a fish he eats for a day and teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime. After talking to Mr. Pankaj Tyagi, 33, Government school teacher, a patriotic man and one of few ‘aware’ gentlemen of the Indian citizenry, we are now convinced of the saying now more than ever. Here we resorted to the use of the word aware instead of educated, as about 74 % of us are educated but few are truly aware (of whats going on around them) and fewer still who care. For starters he knew what Hyperloop was and how it worked. Not the Engineering details but the basic science of it. We never had encountered a user in all of our non-graduation level user research who was not only aware of Hyperloop, but was actively looking forward to it. We didn’t know how to start our interview so we started off with a simple “Will it work in India? Does India really need it?” His answer was a stupendous 'Absolutely yes’; not only was it a good concept but it would also expedite transport, make it faster. He not only found our current infrastructure 'too rickety’ but mainly rusty and too reminiscent of the imperial rule we had been under for so long. For a second progress went out the window. What hit me as an Indian was it was bloody unacceptable in this 21st century for any self respecting democracy leave alone a developing country (with the largest development rate) to allow that archaic xenophilia of ours still haunt us through our infrastructure. His pupils dilated as he referred to our transportation infrastructure as a harassment of the Indian citizens. On being asked if harassment was bit of an overstatement he went on to explain his own situation as he lives in Meerut and works in Delhi, it being a 3 hour train ride, he had to buy a place in an already overcrowded city like Delhi (to work), as 6 hour travel per day takes too much time of his life travelling. He mentioned his initial plan to go home (Meerut) to visit his family on weekends, till then it seemed sensible; but what was bizarre was nowadays he’s so tired from work that he barely goes to Meerut even on weekends. Natually He cant (shouldnt have to) afford six hours travel on weekends (the days to officially chill out). But before we got a chance to, he also dissected his own case study for us. We have in our very own system design class, a team who has taken ‘Migration’ as a topic. I had always wondered during their presentations “Is Migration good or bad?” “What is the problem here?” “Who are they solving for?” (For the Immigrants? the Administration or the Locals?) “What are they trying to solve here?”. Reading as much of history as I have, I always thought that migration was just a natural phenomena, like osmosis. If there are people they are bound to move about trying to explore every corner of the earth. That has been our genetic programming since Homo Habilis, Errectus, Australopithecus you name it. The fact that our genus came to dominate the earth was our natural tendency to flow like water on a table. It taught us sailing, swimming, flying and now space travel as well. That’s whats made us populate the whole wide world instead of just Lake Rudolf in Ethiopia. We roamed about and often found that people (us) have already been living there! (Oops this place has already been discovered!) Now that got awkward real fast. Enter History. So much blood has been shed over this. Entire races, creeds, even species have been eliminated over this. & it still continues to this day. Remember Israel-Palestine? Remember Hitler? Remember Trump? Shiv-Sena? But Tyagiji here actually gave me a bigger picture of things. Why do people migrate? Aspiration. We seek. We seek what we don’t have. Sometimes what, we don’t even know. Mexicans seek a better life for their future generations and so does the people in Bihar. Migration in a region is bad. He said it outright. Because it’s a litmus test that things ain’t right there. From an administrative point of view, if there’s migration happening in your region, then obviously people aren’t happy there. A country’s failure can be measured in how many people are migrating from it, instead of to it. Same can be said about a state, a district, a village. So If administration as a whole, does everything they can to stop migration in their unit of administration, we as country can start to de-urbanize, hinterlands can start growing and we’ll have a homogeneous network of satellite cities rather than overcrowded mega-cities bursting with people and systems breaking down (be it legal, transport, infrastructure, etc). And as a designer and amateur ethnographer in this project I really can shed some light on the fact is that transportation system plays a major role in this. In Tyagiji’s case it would be his reason to migrate to Delhi. Maybe I always knew it in my gut, but he gave me a glimpse of an entire generation of people who are just wasting away years (in hours everyday) of their life stuck in just traffic or in slower modes of transport. The educated, productive and innovative youth have through their youtube channels, kickstarter ideas and TedEx talks proved how productive free time nay me time is.

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Some homemade gaajar ka halwa with its distinctly rich aroma and flavor, makes the team realize the value of unique palettes. It's just not possible for us to have had this taste anywhere else and it's also not fair for us to expect this same taste and color palette anywhere else either. Every region of India has something unique for us to take away with us and a need to retain cultural identities is a burning problem among many people all over today's world. We believe the Hyperloop could provide more people access to these wonderful regional palettes and allow them to be more broadly appreciated and hence ensure their sustenance among a massively globalizing ecosystem.

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Delhi welcomes us with some incredibly pleasant morning weather and we are brought to our destination in this e-rickshaw, which is a common, preferred and relatively pleasant last mile solution in the increasingly polluted heart of Delhi. These electric rickshaws are a sign of our ability to adapt and embrace positive change but does it need to happen only when we are faced with extreme circumstances, in this case pollution? We’re going to need a more proactive enthusiasm from policy makers and stakeholders alike for something as big as a brand new fifth mode of transportation (the hyperloop) to take off ASAP and we're making it our mission to help enable that transformation of minds in as many levels of society as we can.

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The team chats up with a sweet and elderly Uber driver who lives a simple life, earning his own bread and butter. He’s heard of NID and firmly believes that NID is a #vereLevel institution but unfortunately he has absolutely no idea what it is that designers do in the world. So I told him a bit about what it is that we do in a way that touched his life. Because that’s what designers do, we touch people’s lives… so gently and effectively that, when done right, they don’t feel the touch at all and instead experience the resulting happiness. A sweet and necessary conversation as we head out to Delhi to do just that, spread the word about design in the world.

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There are always what-ifs surrounding any sort of innovation or breakthrough and especially more so for super progressive or ambitious ideas like the 19th Century’s internal combustion engines or the 20th Century’s zeppelins. Now in the dawn of the 21st Century the hyperloop presents itself as the next biggest breakthrough in transportation and it may literally break the notion of transportation as we know it today. But the what-ifs surrounding this idea are looming way bigger than ever before and are matters of life and death for both the project and the people who it is meant for. The whole world awaits for more substantial study to be done to answer these what-ifs and breathe reassuring confidence into this futuristic concept.

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Tapping into the pulse of the public through interviews and conversations, finding out their perceptions about various existing arrangements for transportation and discovering their aspirations regarding the same. We also introduced the idea of a Hyperloop to them and got to witness their reactions, thoughts and concerns about this futuristic idea.

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Here are some scenarios that were generated based on the inputs generated by participants in the workshops conducted using the mVIP method cards.

Keywords:  Safety & Security Concern, Higher Price Perception, Class Segregation, Housing, Organic Farming These are some of the commonly recurring points that we identified throughout the course of two days of workshops.

Can make use of more bio-materials. (Bio-design)

Political Influence should not hinder Innovation in this field

Should keep in mind the changing Environmental Conditions (Global Warming, Seas Rising)

Will Influence cleaner Energy Initiatives

System adapting to newer forms of currency

Should be ‘Cyber’ Secure

Integrate other Industries into Transportation (Hospitality, Tourism Etc)

Should have Underwater Hyperloop (Rising water level due to Global Warming)

Should be used to end food wastage and hunger

Virtual Reality can be integrated into it

International travel with neighbouring countries can be made possible opening new trade routes and intercultural horizons

Last mile connectivity given utmost Importance

Has the potential to replace Domestic Airways and Interstate Railways (to some extent)

Intercity and Intracity yet to be balancedAssuming success

It should be affordable not only financially but also supply and demand should be balanced (through planning)

Should be like a second ISRO

The revenues from tertiary sectors should balance down the fares for the travellers so as to make it affordable for as many people as possible

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A proposed site for the hyperloop station to be built in Chennai is New Manali Town so we went down there to get a better look and understanding of the physical context there. The field visit allowed for more conversations to happen and we got to better understand the dark grey underbelly of the logistics supply chain from a few of the truck drivers themselves, without whom the whole supply chain would freeze up. We got to understand their lives as well as their roles in the cargo side of the transportation sector. There was also a brief interaction with an urban planner, Rishi Raghav, who works with UN Habitat in New Delhi who fortunately happened to be in Chennai. The importance of planning in a transportation system and the perspective of a planner towards design and other stakeholders were discussed briefly. Further conversations will take place soon.

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The team conducted workshops with various groups of students at NID, Paldi using the mVIP Method Cards in order to engage more designer minds with the idea of a hyperloop in India and to promote the idea through co-creation.

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We were able to catch up with a few people from the purchase departments of Kalamandir (clothing stores) who were travelling in the Navjeevan Express from Surat to Vijayawada. They were on a trip for ordering around 30 thousand sarees from various textile manufacturers in Surat to be shipped to Kalamandir stores in Vijayawada and Vishakhaptnam by road courier. Here are the notes from that conversation.

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The mobility VIP cards are an experimental tool piloted in 2007 and now in public beta. The cards support rapid future scenario development on the topic of sustainable mobility so that groups and individuals can quickly enter a dialog and brainstorm about possible outcomes, solutions and strategies. The team learnt about the Mobility Vision Integration Process cards created by graduates at Art Center College of Design and explored how they could be tweaked to best deliver insights for our study of the hyperloop system.

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An AntiLoop wall is erected in the work space. In order to understand the real challenges for such a futuristic system to materialize in this country we take turns playing devil’s 😈 advocate to generate a wall of questions and concerns that ought to be solved or at least understood and accommodated for by design if the proposal is to be meaningful at all.

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A brainstorming map begins to take place as we chalk out all of the possible stakeholders and domains of concern for the Hyperloop to take shape in India.

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We watched the Hyperloop One Vision for India event that happened in New Delhi where the Hyperloop India team was also present to interact with various dignitaries like Mr. Suresh Prabhu (Minister of Railways) and Mr. Amitab Kant (CEO, NITI Aayog) and took notes from what had to be said by all of the speakers present in order to understand the views and interests of various stakeholders crucial to the success of such a systems level disruption.

The various speakers at the event were:

Mr. Nick Earle Senior VP, Global Field Operations, Hyperloop One

Mr. Shervin Pishevar Executive Chairman & CO-Founder, Hyperloop One

Mr. Suresh Prabhu Minister of Railways, India

Mr. Rob Lloyd CEO, Hyperloop One -and- Ex-President, Cisco

Mr. Amitab Kant CEO, NITI Aayog

Mr. Davinder Sandhu Executive Director, KPMG India

Mr. Vinayak Chatterjee CEO, Feedback Infra

Mr. Michael Kumar Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

Mr. Subbu Narayanswamy Senior Partner, McKinsey

Mr. Ajay Shankar Former Secretary, DIPP

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Understanding the Hyperloop case study from various perspectives like Cargo, Supply Chain, Economics, Policy, Geography, and Urban Clusters.

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Joined forces with the Hyperloop India team participating in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge as well as the Hyperloop SpaceX Pod Competition in order to provide a fresh perspective of design for such a system to make its home in a context as complex as India.

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This is the Hyperloop corridor being proposed by Hyperloop India connecting the largest ports of India from the West coast (Mumbai) to the East coast (Chennai) via Bengaluru, which is a booming business and start-up center. The study now aims to delve into the exact nature of economic awesomeness and transportation value that India and its people would enjoy because of such a connection.