Elon Musk's vision for a futuristic form of transport has achieved a new milestone after a Hyperloop test pod hit a new top speed of 288mph (463kph) before it exploded.
At the 2019 edition of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, student teams launch their prototype pods through a 1.2 km vacuum tube beside the SpaceX headquarters in California.
Unfortunately for the winning team, their pod exploded shortly after reaching the top speed.
"We are happy to announce that we have reached a top speed of 463 km/h today," the team announced on Twitter.
"Although we lost some parts on the way, we were able to successful [sic] finish our run and are proud to be the winners of the 2019 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition."
[...] After announcing the new speed record on Twitter, Mr Musk revealed that the 2020 edition of the Hyperloop competition will take place in a 10km vacuum tunnel "with a curve".
A longer test track should presumably lead to much faster speeds, while the curve will mean teams will have to prepare a pod that can cope with real-world routes.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 24 2019, @03:17AM (1 child)
It is not explosion, it's unplanned disassembly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @03:21AM
You got it all wrong, it's preemptive diassembly. Not unplanned at all.