Elon Musk Is Hyping Up Another 200-MPH Tunnel Plan, Just In Texas This Time

Elon Musk just can’t seem to let go of this one long-stalled idea where people would commute across cities through superfast tubes known as hyperloops. So far, zero hyperloops have been built, and yet, we now have a new pitch coming in from him: A route running between Austin and San Antonio, Texas. Musk says The Boring Company is already working on a “simple, precursor Hyperloop tunnel” linking the two Texas cities. In a post on X, he also claimed that vehicles inside the tunnel would travel at more than 200 mph.

The whole point with these tunnels is to turn painfully lengthy drives between cities into a problem of the past. Musk says that traffic currently can stretch the trip between the cities out to 2.5 hours – a ridiculous time for an 80-mile trip. However, his tunnel would turn the commute into a sub-30-minute stretch.

Beyond this math, Musk hasn’t shared the exact route or when the tunnel will be built. The cost of construction and exactly what would ride through the tunnel isn’t known either. Musk’s original hyperloop concept from 2013 had passenger pods zipping through low-pressure tubes, though it’s unclear if that plan still holds up today. If pods are out of the question, then they could also just carry regular electric cars that drive a lot faster. Following Musk’s post, The Boring Company chimed in as well, though it didn’t clear up the uncertainty. Instead, the account simply replied that the company “would be excited and honored” to build it.

Unfortunately, that excitement is yet to reach local officials. Jori Liu, director of communications for the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority in the Austin area, told the Austin American-Statesman that the agency only learned about the plan from Musk’s post. It’s the same story in San Antonio, where a spokesperson for Bexar County said the county is yet to hear from The Boring Company.

It’s worth noting that San Antonio did get a Boring Company tunnel pitch once before, though it was a shorter one that would link its airport to the downtown area. The plan stalled out, too. Musk’s bigger tunnel promises in Chicago and between New York and Washington, D.C. never got built either. Beyond those tunnels, hyperloop plans across the United States haven’t fared much better.

With multiple stalled projects, Las Vegas is currently the only place where The Boring Company has managed to build a tunnel that actually moves passengers. Called the Vegas Loop, it shuttles Tesla drivers through tunnels under the city’s convention center and a few casinos. However, these are regular tunnels that move cars at a max speed of around 35 mph. Musk’s pitch for Texas would need to get vehicles to move almost six times faster than that.

Weirdly, even that 200 mph pace falls well short of what The Boring Company promised in 2022. That year, the company announced it had started testing a “full-scale Hyperloop,” with the website for it describing a system that would carry passengers at more than 600 mph.