On the 21nd of July the fourth SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition took place in Los Angeles. The Hyperloop concept was introduced in 2013 by SpaceX founder Elon Musk to challenge modern ways of transportation by racing extremely fast pods through a vacuum tunnel.
Since 2015, all three Hyperloop Pod competitions had been won by the student teams of the Technical University of Munich.
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With its strong expertise Panasonic Industry Europe supports the TUM Hyperloop project with components and know-how. The students use components like the EX-L221 laser sensors that constantly measure the position of the pod inside the tube. The robust and very precise sensors are a perfect fit for this demanding challenge, since they can withstand the 10g of deceleration the pod generates when braking.
Each student team from around the world developed a pod that has to accelerate to the highest speed possible and decelerate to a complete stop. Within the evacuated, about one-mile long tube the pod is guided on an aluminum rail.
The TUM Hyperloop pod uses eight electric motors with a combined power of 320kW – which accelerate the carbon fiber chassis with up to 2g.
With a top speed of 463 km/h the TUM Hyperloop team had the fastest pod in the race and won the competition again – which adds up to a total of four consecutive wins for the students from the Technical University Munich. Panasonic Industry Europe is proud to support the innovative and successful students of the TUM Hyperloop project.
For further information please watch the video of this year’s TUM Hyperloop race.