A serious joke
Remember when Elon Musk’s hyperloop project was potentially a joke even though he bought a giant drill? Now Musk has the green light to, well, avoid green lights. And red lights. And yellow lights.
On July 20, Musk tweeted he “received verbal approval” to proceed with the hyperloop project, which is proposed to connect New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.
GET IN THE (HYPER)LOOP
In case you’ve been out of the loop about hyperloop, here’s a refresher course. In 2013, Musk released the concept in an open-source white paper, but basically said he was too busy to deal with it.
In half jest, Musk named the project The Boring Company.
Nothing happened for a while, but in January of this year, Musk started cryptically tweeting about digging a tunnel. Turns out he got a hold giant drills and began construction on the SpaceX campus.
DIGGING YOURSELF INTO A HOLE
At the end of June, the first section of an LA tunnel was completed. So much for joking about the feasibility of the project.
To be fair to the doubters, it’s a huge project.
In fact, Madeline Brozen, associate director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA, said potential costs for the project are “incomprehensible.”
But we’re talking about the guy who created SpaceX, a space travel firm and premier electronic car-maker Tesla. If nothing else, the SpaceX campus is going to have a cool underground transportation system.
OKAY SO WHAT IS IT?
Musk’s hyperloop project proposes creating a super high-speed underground rail system that would take passengers from NYC to DC in just under a half hour. 29 minutes, to be precise.
It’s basically a subterranean bullet train using thus unproven technology.
Which sounds awesome and very futuristic, but there are still many steps in place before Musk’s dream traffic solution gets past verbal approval.
Although innovation often comes from the private sector, actually constructing the hyperloop will require a tunnel full of permits and regulations.
NEXT STEPS
So far, spokespeople for the governors of states the hyperloop is proposed to go through/under say Musk has not made contact with them. However, a company spokesperson for the Boring Company stated the company has “had a number of promising conversations with local, state, and federal government officials,” about the matter, and “with a few exceptions, feedback has been positive.”
Despite the massive amount of funds and red tape navigation this will take, I’m stoked.
It might take decades (I’m not a city planner, I don’t know timelines), but this ridiculously futuristic project seems well worth it to solve the traffic headache.
Texas loop
Plus, Musk even promised via Twitter that Texas could have its very own hyperloop, so now I have something to daydream about while trapped on I-35.
It’s good to have dreams. Here’s to hoping we get to see Musk’s traffic solution dream come true.
#HyperloopHype
