Elon Musk Says He Has Approval to Build NY-DC Hyperloop
Elon Musk Says He Has Approval to Build NY-DC Hyperloop
The line would make stops in New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore and D.C. Skeptics wasted no time in challenging Musk on the details
The Hyperloop, an electromagnetic tube system, would transport
people from city to city in 29 minutes
Musk first proposed the idea of an intercity Hyperloop in
2013
July 20, 2017
New York to Washington in 29 minutes? Elon Musk says it's
possible and he has the government's approval to do it (though it's anyone's
guess which government or how long it'd take to build).
"Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring
Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29
mins," the billionaire inventor and entrepreneur tweeted Thursday
afternoon.
"City center to city center in each case, with up to
a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city," he said in another
tweet. The Boring Company is Musk's tunneling venture.
It was not clear which government had given him the
approval -- and Musk did not answer multiple tweets from people around the
world asking him the same.
"Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval,
but am optimistic that will occur rapidly," Musk said about an hour later.
The U.S. Department of Transportation referred inquiries
to the White House. The Trump administration acknowledged Musk's tweet while
not getting into any specifics about a possible project.
"We have had promising conversations to date, are
committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest
solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private
sector," a White House spokesman said.
Skeptics wasted no time in challenging Musk on the
details, including the BBC's Silicon Valley reporter, who asked whether the CEO
was announcing prematurely in a bid to drum up support.
"Support would be much appreciated!" he
replied.
In a later response to an inquisitive follower, Musk did
say the work on the New York-to-Washington tunnel would run in parallel to an
existing project to build tunnels in Los Angeles.
"Then prob LA-SF and a TX loop," he tweeted. He
gave no estimate for how long any of these projects would take or what they
might cost.
Musk is best known for his electric car company Tesla and
his space venture SpaceX, as well as co-founding PayPal.
The inventor first proposed the Hyperloop electromagnetic
tube system in 2013. Earlier this year the California tech company Hyperloop
One unveiled a plan for a NY-to-DC system.
Musk's system appeared to be different from theirs,
though.
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