MIT grad students beat out more than 100 other teams with their design for a passenger-carrying Hyperloop “pod,” and will now start building a small-scale prototype to test this summer next to SpaceX’s headquarters
The Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands were the next runners-up. Auburn University won in the category of best overall subsystem. Twenty-two teams in all will go on to test their pods in Hawthorne, although up to 10 other teams could also qualify after further judging in the coming weeks, according to SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop proposal would transport passengers in aluminum pods traveling as fast as 760 mph, mostly following the route of California’s I-5. The estimated cost would be $6 billion for the passenger-only model, or $7.5 billion for a larger model capable of transporting freight.
Elon Musk was at the competition. Elon said he is close to something with electric passenger jets.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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