Elon Musk Hyperloop Pod Competition winner hits 290 mph

Mike
Blake/Reuters

• For the third time, engineering students from the
  Technical University of Munich won SpaceX
  CEO Elon
  Musk’s Hyperloop
  Pod Competition. 
• The event drew engineers from all over the world and
  focused on achieving top speed. 
• WARR Hyperloop won the competition by reaching 290
  miles per hour, exceeding Virgin
  Hyperloops One’s speed record of 240 miles per hour set
  last year. 
  

  ---

A group of German engineering students won the third SpaceX
Hyperloop Pod Competition on Sunday, as their prototype pod
shattered speed records and raced through a nearly mile-long
tunnel at 290 miles per hour. 

WARR Hyperloop, from the Technical University of Munich, won
first place
for the third time in a row and simultaneously set new speed
records, topping out at 290 miles per hour. This year’s
competition was exclusively focused on developing maximum speed
pods, with the only requirements being that all pods be
self-propelled as they raced to see who could travel the fastest
down a 0.8 mile long test track tunnel from a
standstill.  

The annual competition
drew 20 entrants from all around the world, and was hosted at
SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX CEO Elon
Musk attended the event, along with his partner, Grimes, the
Canadian pop star. Originally announced in 2015, Musk’s annual
Hyperloop Competition seeks to cultivate engineering talent while
simultaneously developing innovations for a futuristic
transportation system. It is the first competition of its
kind anywhere in the world. 

This year, the event had a convivial feel, as
The Verge reports an ’80s cover band called the Spazmatics
played old songs while nearby university students hung out in the
sun, enjoying the music and choice of food trucks. Musk himself
made an unscheduled appearance with Grimes and his five young
sons, chatting with students and engineers alike.  

“This is really the first opportunity to create a new mode
of transport,” Musk said,
according to The Verge. “That’s really what this competition
is about: things that could radically transform cities and the
way people get around.”

WARR Hyperloop came into the competition with ambitious goals.
Last month, in
a press release, they announced intentions of having
their pod hit 378 mph (600 kph).  Their 2018 pod
was designed with a smooth, black aerodynamic shape–one
smaller than previous models–and used eight small electric motors
that produced 240 kW of energy. By hitting 290 mph, they bested
the speed record set last year by Virgin Hyperloop One’s pod, which
topped out at 240 mph in December.  

Aside from WARR Hyperloop, other finalists qualifying for
the competition were teams from Delft University from the
Netherlands and EPF Loop from Switzerland.