Over the weekend, 30 teams competing to win the bragging rights to design the Elon Musk-inspired Hyperloop levitating transportation were cut down into three. The teams were chosen last 2016 to participate in the recently concluded testing on the mile-long track in Los Angeles. These qualifying teams will then advance to the final round.
The SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition initiated by the tech billionaire Elon Musk took to Hawthorne, Los Angeles on Jan. 29 its prototype testing where only three teams nabbed the top three spots to enter the finals. There were initially 30 teams who participated, but after presenting their designs, only three teams were found to have the designs that reportedly will work for the Hyperloop project. Those who made the cut include MIT, Delft University of Netherlands, and Technical University of Munich, Germany.
SpaceX gave all the 30 teams the chance to test their pod designs in the test track for Hyperloop, but only the three teams had a successful run on the track. This follows the qualifying rounds before the actual run where the teams had to go through a series of tests which include structural integrity and vacuum chamber survivability. These and more factors on functional, mechanical and navigation checks have been Elon Musk-SpaceX's criteria for identifying the top three contenders, as was reported by Engadget.
The teams have reportedly been in the competition since 2015, but he past weekend marked the first time opportunity for the teams to come together to test their designs. Special awards were also given along with the major recognitions. The fastest pod that reached a maximum speed of around 90km/h was grabbed by the Technical University of Munich (WARR), reported the Business Insider. However, this falls short of the Hyperloop tech's aim of 300km/hr run speed.
Delft University, on the other hand, nabbed the best overall score for its design, while TUM got the fastest time, as mentioned. MIT came in third, after having landed the award for best overall design in 2016. The finals was already set for a summer trial where all the other 27 teams will be potentially able to participate in even if they already failed in the recent round. This gives the teams to address the issues of their designs that caused them to fail in the qualifying tests of Elon Musk-SpaceX's Hyperloop Pod Competition.
