Whoosh
Whoosh was definitely off our radar - but thanks to a forward of this New Atlas article, we’re on it now. There’s actually quite a bit of coverage out so we’re getting caught up quickly.
First off, Whoosh - like Zippar - is coming from outside of the traditional gondola industry. Oddly similar to Zippar (from Japan), Whoosh also originates from a small island nation in the Eastern hemisphere. Whoosh is headquartered out of New Zealand and seems to be partially backed (through grant activity at least) by the New Zealand government - again, a little like Zippar’s Japanese government support. Maybe that sort of national funding is what it takes to hang with the development prowess of the Big 4 gondola companies?
Whoosh was a startup project form a Christchurch engineering firm that gained traction with Google just before COVID. Apparently Google was pretty into the idea as they spun out some of their top execs to help take it to the next level - forming a new company called Swyft Cities. There also seems to be some collaboration going on between Whoosh and Fatzer, a major cableway manufacturer for the traditional gondola industry.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Whoosh is working with a major gondola player like Fatzer, as it’s fairly obvious they are targeting the supergondola market pretty aggressively. Here’s a clip of their urban vision:
The comparisons to Zippar keep coming. Both projects seem to have started at about the same time - Zippar began in 2018, Whoosh seems to have been a bit before that, having publicly showcased their system through an install in Tennessee by 2019. They also both have dedicated labs for prototyping and testing and open them up to demonstrate their systems to the public and members of the press. Zippar is running full-scale prototypes. Whoosh shows off a “one quarter-scale” system. You can see Zippar’s lab in our post about them, the Whoosh lab can be seen in the beginning and end of the video below:
Is it a supergondola?
Again, like Zippar, Whoosh is absolutely developing an urban supergondola transit system. Let’s check the boxes:
Elevated network
Autonomous EVs
Cable (ropeway) infrastructure
Track / rail network segments to allow for navigation from cable sections
Multiple station stop options across their network
But, here’s where Whoosh is a bit different than their fellow eastern hemisphere competition. While Zippar has cabins designed to carry 12 passengers. Whoosh is only capable of carrying 4-5 people.
That capacity difference is a trade off and we don’t know who wins. Zippar’s larger cabins mean it can handle more capacity. But it might make it harder to run like a rideshare. That may be why Zippar isn’t hyping personal trips in their promotional material. Whoosh, on the other hand, does talk specifically on their site about essentially trying to copy the Uber experience:
“Whoosh provides an on-demand ride-hailing experience for passengers, allowing them to book rides and glide easily above congestion in the unused vertical space of a location - traveling nonstop to their destination.”
When will it happen?
The Whoosh website claims they will be running pilot projects soon - one of them being a potential project near Dallas, Texas. So, we’re optimistic that maybe Whoosh could happen. The teams behind this effort, from New Zealand and the US, seem to be dotting i’s and crossing t’s. The Swyft Cities site lists them as “the sole licensee of Whoosh Transportation Technology in North America and other designated geographies.” - and they list key partners like Plenary and AECOM.
We want to believe in Whoosh! Even if they are a relatively unknown nwecomer in the space. And, we also just can’t stop wondering about 2021’s “Future Concept Urban” tease from Doppelmayr - that may be ready to hatch at any moment.
Long story short, more than ever, the odds of a supergondola being available soon keep getting higher - pun intended.