Students of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have invented a hyperloop prototype, sueddeutsche.de reported on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Almost faster than sound: the super-fast train of the future, also known as the Hyperloop. Teams from around the world presented their concepts in the "Hyperloop Pod Competition", conducted by the SpaceX company. The TUM student group WARR is one of the 30 teams that will be allowed to build its prototype to compete against the other teams on a test track in the USA. After months of hard work the WARR team has unveiled its pod on July 4, and you can view the video from the ceremony below.

A ride from Munich to Berlin by car lasts about 5 hours and 45 minutes, by train it’s six hours, and a flight lasts one hour and ten minutes, per hyperloop it would only last 30 minutes.

The idea of the Hyperloop was released by Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX. The concept was introduced in 2013 by Elon Musk in the Alpha Study, according to which high speed trains with roughly the speed of sound (around 1100 km/h) should float in a vacuum tube. These tubes should connect distances between largemetropolis regions and allow fasterand more efficient travelling in comparison to today's means of transportation. Rather than developing the idea himself, Elon Musk opensourced the concept.

Elon Musk, the usually reclusive founder of Space X and Tesla took a lot of time to motivate the students and answer numerous questions during a presentation. American politicians also showed great interest in the event. The US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx visited the event and was fascinated to listen to the German team’s explanations about their design.