RICHMOND, Va. — A group of VCU students is set to compete for Elon Musk’s attention.
Hyperloop at VCU, an organization made up of 40 of students from the university, will compete this month at SpaceX’s Hyperloop Pod Competition.
Hyperloop is an idea for a high-speed underground transportation system under development by SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk’s aerospace and car companies, with the goal of being an efficient alternative to train, plane and automobile travel.
In 2015, Musk announced the student competition as a way to speed up development of a prototype pod that theoretically would carry passengers and cargo through the Hyperloop’s system of tubes.
This year is VCU’s first time in the competition and it is among the 20 finalists selected from entrants around the globe. VCU’s pod will be shipped to SpaceX’s headquarters in California, where it will be raced on a Hyperloop test track.