Elon Musk tweeted on April 7 to announce the upcoming speed test for his visionary Hyperloop. In the tweet, he said that he will be aiming to reach half the speed of sound within 1.2km. He followed the tweet with another reply and said that the test will be “kinda nutty” and stated that the train can end up being shredded metal. But the experiment will be exciting either way.
Upgraded SpaceX/Tesla Hyperloop pod speed test soon. Will try to reach half speed of sound (and brake) within ~1.2km.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2018
This is kinda nutty for such a short distance, so could easily end up being shredded metal, but exciting either way
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2018
This is not the first time for the tech giant to make huge claims on Twitter. The media and his followers were responding to the tweets with enthusiasm. The responses showed a mixture of support for the ambitious project as well as skepticism at the Musk’s ability to fulfill his promises. The Hyperloop was introduced in a 2013 paper. It is not clear that which of his companies is working on the project or if Musk is involved in the project or not.
https://twitter.com/marsbeyond/status/983015103191658496
In March 2018, Musk tweeted about Hyperloop and referred it as a project of the “Boring Company”. But in his latest tweets, the project was called to be of “SpaceX/Tesla Hyperloop.” He wrote, “Adjusting The Boring Company plan: all tunnels & Hyperloop will prioritize pedestrians & cyclists over cars.” Among the competitors of Musk is Richard Branson who plans to build a hyperloop in India and a Canadian startup TransPod which is planning to provide a cheaper version of the high-speed transportation version.
Branson’s Hyperloop One was able to set the current speed record for hyperloop pods at 240 miles per hour. If Musk’s tweet proves to be true, his Hyperloop can break the record with a speed of almost 381 miles per hour. SpaceX website also has a call for the third installment of their pod competition in July. The call for “2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition” says that the competition will focus on a single criterion of “maximum speed.” Meanwhile, Musk has been busy to seek approvals to build the tunnels required for his super fast train.
In July of 2017, he tweeted that he has received “verbal approval at the federal level” to dig a Hyperloop tunnel between New York and Washington DC. Musk also received permission to dig tunnels in California and Baltimore. He is in a discussion for tunnels in Los Angeles and Chicago. In February 2018, the Boring Company announced that they received a permit from the DC government for a tunnel in Washington. Seems like Musk is on his way to achieving his vision of Hyperloop speed travel.