Famous billionaire Elon Musk, who called Vladimir Putin to a one-on-one fight, tried to buy Twitter on the one hand, and played the crypto money market on the other hand, first introduced the idea of a high-speed hyperloop transportation system between cities in 2013. had put forth. However, he soon left the development of the idea to other companies.
Later, in 2017, Musk announced that he would build a hyperloop system, starting with the route from New York to Washington DC. Now he has kept his spot on the agenda again, tweeting that his company, The Boring Company, will create a working hyperloop “in the coming years.”
What is Hyperloop?
Hyperloop can be defined as a system that operates compartments containing passengers or cargo via low-pressure tubes at speeds up to approximately 1,300 kilometers per hour. While this is an idea that might work in theory, it has never been proven to work anywhere near these speeds in practice.
Musk stated that for distances less than 3200 km, the fastest way to get from one city center to another would be hyperloop, with Starship faster for longer journeys. He also said that “underground tunnels are immune to surface air (the subway is a good example), so if a severe hurricane hits the surface it doesn’t matter to the hyperloop. You wouldn’t even notice it.”
Musk founded The Boring Company in late 2016 as a way to efficiently dig tunnels for cars and high-speed trains. This company has recently received major funding of approximately $5.7 billion, but has yet to complete any major projects outside of the approximately 3-mile Las Vegas LVCC Loop.
There is an obvious synergy between Hyperloop and The Boring Company. Things could get a lot more practical once the company finishes development of the Prufrock-3, a machine that can tunnel around 11 kilometers a day.
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