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U.S. Department of Transportation Releases “Hyperloop Standards Desk Review”

Friday, January 15, 2021

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) today released the “Hyperloop Standards Desk Review,” sponsored by the Department’s Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council. This document serves to assess the status of hyperloop standard development; begin a dialogue for future hyperloop standardization efforts; and identify stakeholder perspectives on the applicability of existing standards to domestic testing and deployment.

In July 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation released Pathways to the Future of Transportation: A Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council Guidance Document (Pathways to the Future of Transportation) to provide a framework for the Department’s approach toward non-traditional and emerging technologies, including hyperloop. In response to Pathways to the Future of Transportation, stakeholders shared that it would be helpful for the Department to consider the applicability of international or private sector standards to hyperloop systems in the United States.

The “Hyperloop Standards Desk Review” provides a preliminary mapping of existing standards and regulations to specific hyperloop systems components, but is not intended to be comprehensive, prescriptive, or definitive. To that end, the USDOT will soon publish a Request for Comment on the “Hyperloop Standards Desk Review,” which will allow the public to comment and provide feedback on the document.  

The NETT Council was established in March 2019 as an internal deliberative body to identify and resolve jurisdictional and regulatory gaps that may impede the deployment of new technologies, such as potential advances in tunneling technology and hyperloop.  

More information on the NETT Council’s work can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/nettcouncil.

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