Here's What Happens If The Hyperloop Crashes

Elon Musk / SpaceX

A cutaway of the Hyperloop, showing the passengers wearing seatbelts..

Elon Musk's plan for a pressurized "Hyperloop" transport system between San Francisco and Los Angeles contains a contingency in case there's a crash.

Musk doesn't use the word "crash" specifically, but there's a whole section devoted to safety, depressurization, and structural integrity.

And the diagrams note that the passengers are wearing seatbelts. There is only one reason to wear a seatbelt, of course — crashes.

Musk starts by saying that the system will likely be safer than other forms of transport:

The system is immune to wind, ice, fog, and rain. The propulsion system is integrated into the tube and can only accelerate the capsule to speeds that are safe in each section. With human control error and unpredictable weather removed from the system, very few safety concerns remain.

In many cases Hyperloop is intrinsically safer than airplanes, trains, or automobiles.