Enlarge / All the whoopee happened at this end of the 3/4 mile low-pressure test track. A pyramid and an obelisk of Boring Company bricks and EPFLoop's pod imbricate can be seen abreast it. (credit: Megan Geuss)

HAWTHORNE, CA—On a sweltering day in Southern California, 20 groups of student engineers gathered on a side street near the SpaceX headquarters to show off the Hyperloop pods that they had spent the largest part of a year putting together.

The teams had spent the previous days showing SpaceX engineers their designs and testing them in vacuum chambers and on open-air tracks. The SpaceX engineers voted on their favorite teams, and the top three were awarded time on the three-quarter-mile low-pressure test track that SpaceX has built next to its headquarters. Delft University of Technology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPF), and WARR (a student group within Munich Technical University) were the three teams to win the coveted tube time.

WARR secure its two previous wins again: this time with an stereotype speed of 284 miles per hour and a top speed of 290mph, equal to SpaceX announcements during the competition.