The Boring Company has received verbal government approval to build an underground tunneling project between New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore.
CEO Elon Musk tweeted the news Thursday morning, adding that it would turn a roughly four hour journey from New York City to Washington, D.C. into a mere 29 minutes.
New York City is some 220 miles away from Washington, D.C. That means that a 30 minute trip would require speeds to reach up to 450 mph.
Musk further detailed in a subsequent tweet that the route would be from “city center to city center, in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city.”
He even laid out a grand-scale plan for implementing Hyperloops all over the United States, saying that the tunnels in Los Angeles and on the East Coast were only the first step.
As with all of Musk’s tweets, the language and terminology drive the discussion. It’s unconfirmed if Musk’s mention of “hyperloop” in his tweet signifies that The Boring Company would be heading up a project that would go beyond tunneling and implement Hyperloop technology. Or perhaps we might even see a direct partnership with Hyperloop One.
The Boring Company’s website mentions that its tunnels would make “Hyperloop adoption viable and enable rapid transit across densely populated regions,” but this tweet is the first public indication that the two arms of Musk’s innovative new transport concepts would be working together.
The companies feature two separate transportation ideas along the same vein: The Boring Company is geared toward providing an underground highway option for drivers in densely populated areas while Hyperloop One is focused on extremely fast, train-like transportation between cities.
Hyperloop One recently completed its first official test run, where a test sled was propelled by magnetic levitation through a Hyperloop tube at 70 mph.
Likewise, The Boring Company has begun construction of its first transport tunnel in Los Angeles, with Musk tweeting progress on an elevator skeleton and the tunnel.
The marrying of the two companies for a project among the East Coast’s biggest cities means the world is closer to Musk’s dreams of making transportation significantly more practical, efficient and sustainable.
Although this project is still in its very early stages, the approvals are a step in the right direction for a system that would revolutionize transportation in America and the world.