Elon Musk plans trickier Hyperloop test tunnel after speed record broken
He's planning next for a much longer tunnel with a curve.
A pod entering the Hyperloop at the 2017 Hyperloop Pod Competition.
Elon Musk's vision for a Hyperloop future raced forward Sunday at the 2019 Hyperloop Pod Competition. A self-propelled pod set a new speed record on the track. So next up is a much-longer tunnel, with a curve.
Musk tweeted about the new Hyperloop record of 463 kph (288 mph). This beats the previous record set at last year's competition of 457 kph (284 mph).
Twenty-one teams from universities across the world competed. The winning team this year -- and last year -- comes from the Technical University of Munich. A tweet from the team on Monday noted that its pod "lost some parts on the way" on the way to its win.
We are happy to announce that we have reached a top speed of 463 km/h today. Although we lost some parts on the way, we were able to successful finish our run and are proud to be the winners of the 2019 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition.
— TUM Hyperloop (@TUM_Hyperloop) July 22, 2019
Break a pod :wink: @SpaceX @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/GNrH5Ct2qu
Musk, whose company SpaceX sponsored on the Hyperloop competition, tweeted that next year's event will expand the tunnel from three-quarters of a mile to 6.2 miles (10 km). The tunnel will also include a curve.
He's been publicly pursuing the near-supersonic train-in-a-tube concept since 2013.
Next year’s @Hyperloop competition will be in a 10km vacuum tunnel with a curve
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2019