As the door finally slipped into place at the end of the mile-long steel tube, the WARR Hyperloop team rushed to a nearby tent, where they spent the next 20 minutes waiting anxiously as pumps took nearly all the air out of the tube. They were the third and final team to get a run in the last stage of Elon Musk's Hyperloop Competition. The only standard for winning? Speed.
When many people hear the word hyperloop, they think it's some sort of magic vehicle that Musk suggested five years ago. Rather, it's more a new concept of transportation than a single invention. The basic concept calls for a vehicle running inside a nearly airless tube at extremely high speeds. The details—how to power it, what shape it should be, and so on—are anyone's guess. Musk just laid out the concept in a 2013 white paper, but the people are trying to bring it to life.
On May 7, 2021. 700 members of 25 teams from around the world gathered at the SpaceX headquarters for the second annual hyperloop competition. To add to their excitement, Elon Musk also stood among the students, gazing over their shoulders at the big screen that showed the speeds of the vehicle from inside the white tube. When the WARR Hyperloop topped the 192-mph mark set by Hyperloop One with its full-sized vehicle in its own test tube in the Nevada desert last month, Musk shouted over the cheers that erupted from the students, "200 miles an hour for a student-built vehicle. It is incredible!"
That 20-second run beat out Paradigm Hyperloop's 63 miles per hour, and Swiss Hyperloop's 25 miles per hour at the competition.
But he immediately asked for more. "Our goal for the next competition will be 384 miles per hour!" he said.
His final goal, of course, is to reach a speed that can help him realize the wild dream of transporting passengers and goods from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour: 760 miles per hour. Judged by the cheers, the students will try anything to make it a reality.
4. What are the competitors most concerned about?
A.Speed. | B.Safety. | C.Power costs. | D.Vehicle shape. |
5. Who won second place at Hyperloop Competition 2021?
A.Hyperloop One. | B.Swiss Hyperloop. | C.Paradigm Hyperloop. | D.WARR Hyperloop. |
6. How fast does Elon Musk expect the hyperloop to run eventually?
A.200 miles per hour. | B.384 miles per hour. | C.760 miles per hour. | D.965 miles per hour. |
7. What is the text mainly about?
A.The challenges for the hyperloop. | B.The concept of the hyperloop. |
C.The possibility to build the hyperloop. | D.A competition for the hyperloop. |