Faster than a Plane
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Cleantech pioneer and billionaire Elon Musk wants you to drive a Tesla electric car or truck, power your home with SolarCity solar panels and store renewable electricity with Tesla Powerwall battery packs. Oh yeah, he also wants to zip you from DC to NYC in less than 30 minutes via Hyperloop pods that can reach speeds of more than 600 miles per hour racing through evacuated tubes.
It is assumed that in such tunnels there will be a system of transportation of cars on special platforms, which will quickly overcome traffic jams. The machines will be sinking into the tunnels through the mines. If vehicles are placed on such a platform, the diameter of the tunnel can be reduced by almost two times, which in turn will reduce the costs of sinking by 3-4 times, which is too high today.
Now Musk has revealed that part of the reason he started The Boring Company, besides finding a solution for LA’s “soul-destroying traffic,” is to launch and test a Hyperloop by using his new Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) to dig underneath the City of Angels. He founded The Boring Company at the end of 2016 and in May 2018 posted in Instagram: “First Boring Company tunnel under LA almost done! Pending final regulatory approvals, we will be offering free rides to the public in a few months. Once fully operational (demo system rides will be free), the system will always give priority to pods for pedestrians & cyclists for less than the cost of a bus ticket.”
Also, Musk answered a few questions about the project on Twitter. He said the company has already started working on a route between New York and Washington, D.C., and that they hope to start work on a route between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2019. Musk explained that one would be a true Hyperloop with “pressurized pods in near vacuum tunnels,” and that passengers on that route would be able to travel faster than if they were on a jetliner.
THE BORING COMPANY
