Tesla CEO Elon Musk has just announced plans to develop a 29-minute transit between New York City and Washington D.C.
Per Fortune:
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday that one of his other projects, the tunneling and infrastructure firm known as The Boring Company, has received “verbal government approval” to build an underground hyperloopfrom New York City to Washington, D.C.
Musk said the hyperloop, a supersonic-speed mode of transportation that he first proposed in 2012, would be able to travel between the two cities in 29 minutes, as well as make stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore. (Musk didn’t specify if that time includes the additional stops.)
Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2017
City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2017
Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2017
Musk is working on these “hyperloops” elsewhere in the US:
Musk responded to some users’ tweets, telling one that he would work on the New York to D.C. tunnel while simultaneously continuing work on the Los Angeles tunnel that began in June. There could even be a Texas loop that makes stops in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, Musk said.
This new travel system is looking to target speeds of over 700 miles per hour:
The news follows last week’s announcement that Hyperloop One, a separate, independent spin-off company that has been working on the technology after Musk open-sourced his idea, successfully completed its first full-scale test in what the company described as its “Kitty Hawk moment.”
— Advertisement — Hyperloop One only tested at 70 miles per hour — a tenth of its 700 plus miles per hour target speed — but has plans to attempt another test at 250 miles per hour later this year.
The Boring Company was founded by Musk in late 2016 after complaining about Los Angeles’ traffic in a tweet. In April, the company released a concept video showcasing automobiles submerging underground via elevators and being transported in high-speed containers on rail lines.