Elon Musk's futuristic vision for disrupting the world of transportation hit a new milestone yesterday: a Hyperloop test pod hit 288 miles per hour – right before it exploded, according to the Independent.

The incident took place at the 2019 SpaceX Hyperloop pod competition, which is where student teams launch prototype pods through a 1.2 km vacuum tube next to SpaceX headquarters in California. We're sure this contest definitely isn't Musk farming out his engineering work to a bunch of his cultists for cheap labor.

The winning team reached the top speed - and then their pod exploded.





The team said on Twitter:

"We are happy to announce that we have reached a top speed of 463 km/h today. Although we lost some parts on the way, we were able to successful finish our run and are proud to be the winners of the 2019 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition.”

When Musk first conceptualized the Hyperloop in 2013, he suggested that vacuum tubes might help move people at more than 500 mph. As the article notes, this latest record is still a long way off from this prediction and is barely on a par with some of the fastest high-speed trains currently in use in China. Except, of course, those trains don’t explode after they reach 250 mph.

The explosion didn’t stop Musk from announcing the new speed record on Twitter and revealing that the 2020 competition would take place in a 10 km vacuum tube "with a curve".

We wonder if Elon will take the first test ride.