• 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
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
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • 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
About Us
  • 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

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
An unusual Fed ‘rate check’ triggered a free fall in the U.S. dollar and investors are fleeing into gold
By Jim EdwardsJanuary 26, 2026
14 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
Trump was surging after the Venezuela raid—then came Jerome Powell, Greenland, and Minnesota. Now it feels like a ‘historic hinge moment’
By Jason MaJanuary 25, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Sweden abolished its wealth tax 20 years ago. Then it became a 'paradise for the super-rich'
By Miranda Sheild Johansson and The ConversationJanuary 22, 2026
4 days ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Gates Foundation plans to give away $9 billion in 2026 to prepare for the 2045 closure while slashing hundreds of jobs
By Sydney LakeJanuary 23, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
'The Bermuda Triangle of Talent': 27-year-old Oxford grad turned down McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to find out why Gen Z’s smartest keep selling out
By Eva RoytburgJanuary 25, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Despite running $75 billion automaker General Motors, CEO Mary Barra still responds to ‘every single letter’ she gets by hand
By Preston ForeJanuary 26, 2026
9 hours 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.


Latest in Tech

markets
InvestingMarkets
S&P 500 wins back all losses from Greenland dip, gold and silver surge even higher
By Stan Choe and The Associated PressJanuary 26, 2026
2 hours ago
PoliticsBillionaires
Billionaire Tom Steyer says he’d vote for California wealth tax
By Eliyahu Kamisher and BloombergJanuary 26, 2026
4 hours ago
Palantir CEO Alex Karp during an interview at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
InnovationImmigration
Palantir/ICE connections draw fire as questions raised about tool tracking Medicaid data to find people to arrest
By Tristan BoveJanuary 26, 2026
6 hours ago
AIHiring
Job seekers are suing an AI hiring tool used by Microsoft and Paypal for allegedly compiling secretive reports that help employers screen candidates
By Patrick Kulp and Tech BrewJanuary 26, 2026
6 hours ago
NewslettersTerm Sheet
Why two Gen Z college dropouts are combatting financial nihilism with a credit card startup
By Leo SchwartzJanuary 26, 2026
13 hours ago
NewslettersFortune Tech
Meta abruptly halts teen access to its AI characters
By Alexei OreskovicJanuary 26, 2026
15 hours ago