Transportation's Next Big Leap: Hyperloop?

Elon Musk calls it a cross between a Concorde and railgun
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 30, 2013 2:15 PM CDT
Transportation's Next Big Leap: Hyperloop?
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gives the opening keynote at the SXSW Interactive Festival on Saturday, March 9, 2013 in Austin, Texas.   (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett)

Elon Musk is up to something that he thinks could revolutionize transportation. At this week's D11 conference, the Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder was asked about something called "hyperloop," but said he couldn't talk much about it because "if I do, that will be the news tomorrow" and he needed to talk Tesla. But he did say that it was an alternative to California's proposed high-speed rail project, and he dropped this tantalizing description: "It's a cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table."

But Musk has said more in the past. Last year, Business Insider recalls, Musk said the system was a bit like a Jetsons tube. It "can never crash, is immune to weather" and could move twice as fast as a plane while costing less and being potentially completely solar powered. "This is possible, absolutely," he said. At the time, Musk's plans seemed vague—he said he was "considering just open-sourcing" the idea. But now he says he might be ready to talk about it at the end of June. (More Elon Musk stories.)

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