We haven’t heard much about the Hyperloop since Elon Musk first confirmed he was working on the concept back in August 2013. That’s hardly surprising, the maverick innovator always said he only wanted to show the world that it was theoretically possible and would leave its actual construction to someone else.
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In the last 24 hours however, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has announced plans to build a Hyperloop test track. The track, which will “most likely” be situated in Texas, will allow companies and student teams to test prototypes.
Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2015
Read more: Don’t hold back the crazy ones, Hyperloop already battling haters
Musk also tweeted that he was considering holding an annual competition for students, similar to the Formula SAE series:
Also thinking of having an annual student Hyperloop pod racer competition, like Formula SAE http://t.co/HV9BLCoMb8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2015
That series is a student design competition organized by SAE International (formerly Society of Automotive Engineers), which aims to get said students building racing car prototypes as if they were doing so for an actual client.
As Formula SAE’s about page explains:
The concept behind Formula SAE is that a fictional manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. The prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item. The target marketing group for the race car is the non-professional weekend autocross racer. Each student team designs, builds and tests a prototype based on a series of rules whose purpose is both to ensure onsite event operations and promote clever problem solving.
