TUM Hyperloop - Engineering a world without the limits of distance and time

Back in 2013, Elon Musk presented his vision for the future of transportation. He named this concept hyperloop and encouraged teams from around the world to develop it. Inside an vacuum tube levitating vehicles, so-called pods, travel along at speeds of up to 900 km/h without leaving the ground. To motivate young people for this technology, SpaceX began organizing the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in Los Angeles in 2015, where teams from across the globe could compete with their pod prototypes. This led a student team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) to delve into the subject. Their first participation in January 2017 marked the beginning of a successful tradition: against renamed international competitors the TUM team managed to win the trophy four times in a row, achieving their most recent victory in July 2019 with an impressive record speed of 482 km/h.
In 2020, the successful student initiative evolved into the current research and development program TUM Hyperloop. Its objective is to develop the necessary technology for realizing ultra-fast and emission-free passenger transportation between mobility hubs. With the support of the Bavarian State Government's technology and innovation initiative, Hightech Agenda Bayern, TUM Hyperloop is currently constructing Europe's first full-scale Hyperloop demonstrator in passenger size — a 24-meter-long test segment that will enable testing of Hyperloop core technologies and be certified for passenger operations. The demonstrator represents the initial significant step in a comprehensive testing strategy and aims to serve as the foundation for longer routes for ultra-fast passenger transportation.