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 participated to design—and for some teams, build—a subscale prototype transport vehicle in order to demonstrate technical feasibility of various aspects of the Hyperloop concept. The competitions were open to participants globally, although all competitions and judging 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on a longer track was envisioned; however, in the event, no longer track was built and the pod-racing competition was superseded in 2021 by a tunnel-boring competition, with the aim for teams to rapidly and accurately build a tunnel 30 m (98 ft) long and 30 cm (0.98 ft) wide.
Overview 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, 1.83 m (72.0 in) 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 best design prize. WARR Hyperloop, from the Technical University of Munich, won fastest speed prize. In April 2017, 24 teams were selected to compete in Competition Weekend II held in August; WARR Hyperloop won top honors with a 323 km/h (201 mph) 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. WARR Hyperloop again won top honors in the main competition, beating its own record with a 467 km/h (290 mph) run; UCSB Hyperloop was the only team to be able to compete in the levitation sub-competition, thus automatically winning. It was announced during Competition III that Competition IV was confirmed to take place in the northern hemisphere summer of 2019. Technical University of Munich won the competition, and the 2020 Hyperloop competition was announced.
Results
History The outline of the original Hyperloop concept was made public in August 2013 by the release of a preliminary—or alpha level—design document by Elon Musk, with substantial design assistance from an informal group of engineers at both Tesla Motors and SpaceX who worked on the conceptual foundation and modelling of Hyperloop. The preliminary design called for a 2.3–3.4 m-diameter (90–132 in) steel tube, operating in partial vacuum (nearly airless), utilizing pressurized vehicle "pods" to carry passengers or cargo that would ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. The alpha design included a notional route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area, paralleling the Interstate 5 corridor for most of its length, so that preliminary economic analysis might be done on the concept. Responses to the design paper release included: "a flash of brilliance" and "hypercool" to "nothing new here" to "hype", "another science-fiction dream," and "completely impractical." Within days of the 2013 announcement, discussions concluded that building a successful Hyperloop subscale demonstration project could reduce the political impediments while improving cost estimates; Musk suggested that he could choose to become personally involved in building a demonstration prototype of the Hyperloop concept, including funding the development effort. On 15 June 2015, SpaceX announced that they would sponsor a Hyperloop pod design competition, and would build a 1-mile-long (1.6 km) subscale test track near SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, for the competitive event. The competition could be held as early as June 2016. SpaceX stated in their announcement, "Neither SpaceX nor Elon Musk is affiliated with any Hyperloop companies. While we are not developing a commercial Hyperloop ourselves, we are interested in helping to accelerate development of a functional Hyperloop prototype." More than 700 teams had submitted preliminary applications by July. Detailed competition rules were released for the first competition in August 2015, with revisions in October. Formal Intent to Compete submissions were due 15 September 2015 with SpaceX intending to release the detailed tube and technical specification by October 2015 but became available somewhat later. A preliminary design briefing was held in November 2015, and as of October 2015, Final Design Packages were due on 13 January 2016. A Design Weekend was held at Texas A&M University on 29–30 January 2016 for all invited entrants. The selected pods will compete at the SpaceX Hyperloop Test Track in January 2017. More than 120 student engineering teams were selected from the preliminary design briefing presentations in November to submit final design packages in January 2016. The designs were released to public view prior to the end of January 2016, and selected teams were invited to build hardware and compete in time trials, planned for mid-2016 at the time.
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