Hyperloop pod competition

The Hyperloop Pod Competition was an annual competition sponsored by SpaceX from 2015 to 2019 in which a number of student and non-student teams participate to design—and for some, build—a subscale prototype transport vehicle in order to demonstrate technical feasibility of various aspects of the Hyperloop concept. The competitions have been open to participants globally, although all competitions and judging has occurred in the United States of America. A competition in 2020 on a longer track was envisioned; however, in the event, no longer track was built and the pod-racing competition was superseded in 2021 by a tunnel-boring competition, with the aim for teams to rapidly and accurately build a tunnel -long and -wide. There were three judging phases in the 2015–2017 competition: a design competition that was held in January 2016, and two on-track competitions—27–29 January 2017, and, Competition Weekend II, 25–27 August 2017. The on-track portion of the competition is run on the SpaceX Hyperloop test track—or Hypertube—a mile-long, partial-vacuum, diameter steel tube purpose-built in Hawthorne, California, for the competition. Thirty of the 115 teams that submitted designs in January 2016 were selected to build hardware to compete on a sponsored Hyperloop test track in January 2017. There were more than 1,000 applicants at earlier stages of the competition. The first competition completed in January 2017, with 27 teams from around the world participating. Delft Hyperloop from the Technical University of Delft won the first overall prize. WARR Hyperloop, from the Technical University of Munich, won top honors. In April 2017, 24 teams were selected to compete in Competition Weekend II held in August; WARR Hyperloop won top honors with a top speed in the mile-long test track. In July 2018, 18 teams competed in the main competition with top speed as the only judged criterion; two additional teams competed in the levitation sub-competition.