Over 200 mph! Musk plans to build an Austin–San Antonio "hyperloop"
en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 20, Musk said that his tunnel company The Boring Company is studying the construction of a high-speed underground transportation system connecting Austin and San Antonio, Texas, and described it as a "simplified, precursor-type Hyperloop." According to the targets disclosed by Musk, the system will operate at speeds exceeding 200 mph, or about 321 km/h, and the travel time between the two cities is planned to be kept within 30 minutes. Musk said that under traffic congestion, current road travel between the two places can take as long as about 2.5 hours.
The Boring Company subsequently responded that it is willing to build this large-scale infrastructure project and proposed that the system adopt a point-to-point direct mode with no intermediate stops. If Loop stations are built at both ends in Austin and San Antonio, passengers could complete point-to-point travel between the two cities in about 30 minutes. At this stage, The Boring Company has not yet announced the specific route alignment, tunnel length, number of stations, construction investment, financing structure, or construction timetable, nor has it disclosed any signed government cooperation agreements or project contracts.
The technical plan disclosed this time has not yet been finalized. The Boring Company's existing Loop system uses all-electric vehicles for point-to-point transportation in underground tunnels, and the maximum design operating speed of the existing Loop system published on the company's official website can reach 150 mph; the Austin–San Antonio plan proposed this time exceeds 200 mph, already higher than the publicly disclosed design speed of the company's existing Loop system. The Boring Company's official website describes its Hyperloop concept as autonomous electric pods operating within an ultra-high-speed transportation system, with a target speed exceeding 600 mph.
The Boring Company has already built and operates the Loop underground transportation network in Las Vegas. The company disclosed that multiple stations of the Vegas Loop have been put into use and that it continues to expand toward a larger-scale underground transportation network. The earlier-built Las Vegas Convention Center Loop includes underground tunnels and multiple stations and is one of the main transportation projects of The Boring Company that has already entered actual operation.
In Texas, The Boring Company has already built tunnel research and testing facilities. Its Cybertunnel at Tesla's Austin Gigafactory has been completed and put into operation, used to transport completed Cybertrucks from the production area to the vehicle staging area on the other side of the road. The company is also advancing research and testing of the Prufrock series tunnel boring machines in Bastrop, Texas, and regards increasing tunnel construction speed and reducing construction cost per unit distance as key priorities in technology development.
The Boring Company also completed a $3 billion Series D financing this month. Public reports show that after this round of financing, the company's valuation reached about $23 billion. However, the Austin–San Antonio high-speed tunnel is currently still at the stage of a plan publicly proposed by Musk and The Boring Company, and no government approvals, land agreements, environmental permits, formal construction contracts, or start-of-construction schedules have been disclosed.
