Delft Technical University Students Shatter Own Hyperloop Pod Speed Record

The Delft University of Technology Hyperloop team has crushed its own previous speed record for the fastest Hyperloop pod. For the past three years, the Delft team, sponsored and mentored by Cognizant, has competed at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in Los Angeles against student teams from all over the world. The objective is to create the fastest, most innovative vehicles, known as Hyperloop pods, and race them in a 1-km-long vacuum tube.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s annual Hyperloop competition did not take place at SpaceX. Instead, the Delft team set a new goal to beat its previous speed record for its Atlas04 Hyperloop vehicle in open air at their 368-meter “Long Test Track” in Hilversum, Netherlands. Recently, the team shattered its own previous race record speed of 202 km per hour, achieving speeds of an astounding 360 km per hour.

“This is an amazing feat that far exceeded our expectations,” said Dr. Rouzbeh Amini, Senior Director Industry 4.0, Cognizant, who coached the Hyperloop engineering team and is running three other PhD collaboration programs with Delft University of Technology. “Our team of STEM students has clearly demonstrated their dedication, hard work, and innovative skills to contribute to a more environmentally sustainable and economical future of transportation. We are very proud of them.”

Watch the team’s journey in Breaking Barriers, a new documentary that captures the highs and lows of their yearlong effort.

Congratulations to the Delft team!