• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechSpaceX

MIT Team Unveils Hyperloop Pod Design Ahead of Summer Face-Off

By
David Z. Morris
David Z. Morris
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
David Z. Morris
David Z. Morris
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 15, 2016, 2:59 PM ET
MIT hyperloop pod
MIT hyperloop podMIT Hyperloop

A team of MIT students took first place in the initial round of SpaceX’s Hyperloop pod competition in January, and now they’ve revealed their design. The team’s pod will compete against more than twenty other university and nonprofit teams in the second stage of the SpaceX competition, slated to take place this summer.

The team has built a scaled-down version of the pod, which will use magnets to levitate. That’s significant because it deviates from Elon Musk’s initial whitepaper outlining the Hyperloop idea, which posited a pod floating on a cushion of compressed air known as an air bearing. The community and startups that have since arisen around the Hyperloop have broadly shifted their focus to mag-lev, which is more fault-tolerant than an air bearing.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

MIT’s pod also uses magnets for its braking system, but will have a system of wheels for the start and end of its trip.
Speaking to the BBC, the team said that the brakes still needed more testing. Most interestingly, they also said that they were having substantial problems making the pod turn, which would be a huge obstacle for a transportation system.

MIT’s pod is still a fairly small model, even relative to the roughly half-scale pods that are expected to go head to head in the SpaceX competition. Track size and other details of the competition haven’t been made public by SpaceX yet, and MIT’s team indicates it hasn’t received specs for the launcher that will be used to get the pods up to speed. With the competition supposedly mere months away, that raises questions of how teams will adapt to still-unreleased standards, or whether the competition might be pushed back.

For more on the Hyperloop, watch our video:

After releasing the initial Hyperloop whitepaper, Musk said he wouldn’t be helping build the Hyperloop himself. But as interest rose, he announced he would sponsor the pod design competition through SpaceX. SpaceX has used the competition to its advantage by actively recruiting the young engineers it attracted.

Two sometimes-contentious commercial Hyperloop projects also latched on to the idea, neither formally affiliated with Musk or SpaceX. The companies have both made significant recent progress: Hyperloop One just publicly demoed its pod chassis, and its competitor, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, has reached an agreement with Slovakia to explore building a Hyperloop there.

About the Author
By David Z. Morris
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Warner gestures
AIAmerican Politics
New college grad unemployment will spike to 35% in 2 years, senator warns, forcing ‘Dario, Sam’ to quit AI fear-mongering
By Jacqueline MunisMarch 25, 2026
42 minutes ago
Big TechMeta
Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark child social media harm case, ordered to pay $3 million—with punitive damages still to come
By Kaitlyn Huamani, Barbara Ortutay and The Associated PressMarch 25, 2026
56 minutes ago
NewslettersCIO Intelligence
The ROI for AI isn’t one-size-fits-all, says data storage CTO
By John KellMarch 25, 2026
1 hour ago
PoliticsDonald Trump
Trump taps Zuckerberg, Huang, Ellison for tech advisory council—but excludes Musk and Altman
By Sharon GoldmanMarch 25, 2026
2 hours ago
EuropeLetter from London
Rishi Sunak is giving advice to CEOs on AI. Here are his golden rules
By Kamal AhmedMarch 25, 2026
3 hours ago
SuccessEntrepreneurs
‘Wealth doesn’t erase your problems—it magnifies them’: One serial entrepreneur’s brutally honest take on making it
By Sydney LakeMarch 25, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Magazine
The youngest-ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company is fighting Trump's cuts to keep Medicaid strong
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
1 day ago
Commentary
The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it
By Fortune EditorsMarch 23, 2026
2 days ago
Success
Palantir’s billionaire CEO says only two kinds of people will succeed in the AI era: trade workers — ‘or you’re neurodivergent’
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
1 day ago
Energy
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman calls it 'treason': $580 million in suspicious oil futures traded minutes before Trump's Iran reversal
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
1 day ago
Success
JPMorgan has started monitoring the keystrokes, video calls, and meetings of its junior investment bankers—and they say it's for employee well-being
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
1 day ago
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of March 24, 2026
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.