In June last year, SpaceX hosted a design competition for Hyperloop Pods and this past weekend the winners that will now build a vehicle to be tested by Musk & Cohave have been announced.

A team of MIT students concentrated on demonstrating three key technologies - high speed and low drag levitation, robust lateral control and fail-safe emergency braking. They intend the pod to weigh only 250kg, which would allow the vehicle to achieve the highest cruise speed at 110 m/s.

The pod will be made of aluminum, carbon fiber, and polycarbonate. In order to levitate over the track, the pod will use two arrays of 20 neodymium magnets. To enter and exit the boarding stations, the pod will travel at low speeds, using the wheels

What's interesting is that the MIT pod won despite it not (yet) being developed to carry passengers or cargo.

The Delft University of Technology from The Netherlands came in second, the University of Wisconsin won third place. These teams will probbaly also be able to build their test pods, including teams that came in fourth and fifth, the Virginia Tech and the University of California, Irvine, respectively.

Feb. 4, 2016 Living photo: MIT/Wired

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