Hyperloop UPV
The Hyperloop UPV concept is a levitating rail-free pod design. Using magnetic repulsion and air cushioning for levitation is expensive and can produce unpredictable forces. The pod is equipped with a hybrid system of permanent magnets and electromagnet units, being able to control lift, so it can hover from the top of the tube. That way, the pod doesn't need so much electricity to be lifted by itself. Propulsion is obtained through expansion of the air with a nozzle, located at the rear of the pod, achieving speeds of up to 1000 km/h. The turbine recovers energy from the flow allowing a more efficient journey. This clean tube layout is said to cut costs in up to 30% of the whole Hyperloop project (about 180m USD) and the possibility to comfortably fit more passengers.
Hyperloop pod competition
Each competition has taken place on a , test track built in southern California.
Test pods may not carry any human or animal, and are to be used solely to develop new technologies and subsystems for effecting higher-velocity tube transport systems.
The track will facilitate pod test runs where each pod is accelerated, achieves a top measured speed that is reported in real-time, and then decelerates by braking, ostensibly before the end of the test track. There will be a crash pit after the end of the track to absorb the energy of any test pods that fail to come to a stop in the test track tube.