Tesla Co-Founder Unveils the Hyperloop
Elon Musk, a co-founder of PayPal and co-founder and current CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors has unveiled what he sees at the world’s fith mode of transportation: the Hyperloop.
It happened late Monday afternoon but many have been following his work for more than a year now, anxiously awaiting the announcement that had been surrounded in mystery.
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The Hyperloop is a mass transit system that would transport people & cargo in elevated pods in pressurized tubes at high speeds using solar power. A trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco would take only 30 minutes.
Musk said he won’t have the time to build the system himself but urged others to take on the project. He will “probably” build at least a prototype to get the ball rolling.
Musk’s inspiration came after learning of the astronomical cost of California’s high-speed rail system at $70 billion slated to begin this year. He estimates Hyperloop could be four time faster than the high speed rail and be built at a tenth of the cost.