Elon Musk’s civil engineering firm, the Boring Company, will attempt to create a functional Hyperloop in the coming years.
The Hyperloop, which Musk initially suggested in 2013, is a speculative mode of transportation that would carry passengers over vast distances utilising low-pressure tubes and pods flying at speeds of up to 760 miles per hour. In a perfect world, it would eliminate traffic congestion caused by a lack of investment in new roads and highways.
Though the Hyperloop has so far remained a concept, the Boring Company said on Monday that full-scale testing of the design would begin later this year.
That’s a bit of a challenge. The technological problems of moving humans at a velocity slightly below the speed of sound in conditions approaching a vacuum have yet to be addressed by anybody in the decade since Musk and his competitor, Virgin Hyperloop, initially proposed the notion.
The Boring Company revealed no other information, and no additional remarks could be located on its website or its LinkedIn account, its only other official communication outlet.
The company’s track record is also disappointing so far, though. Besides a private testing facility in California, the Boring Company’s only customer-facing project completed in the six years since its official founding is a system of 1.7-mile-long tunnels located beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center and used to taxi visitors to three different stations in a Tesla driving at normal speeds.
It’s unclear if the Boring Company will have anything to offer in the years ahead, but Musk’s statement confirms that the concept is at least alive.