Elon Musk Unveils Plans for $10 Billion Hyperloop Transportation System

[pancaf]

Same guy who co-founded Tesla Motors and paypal.. now working on a tube transportation system.

Air cushioning: That's the high-concept technology behind the high-speed transit concept that billionaire Elon Musk calls the Hyperloop.

Musk - who already plays leading roles in the SpaceX rocket venture, the Tesla electric car company and the SolarCity solar-energy company - unveiled what he has called the "alpha" version of the Hyperloop plan in a blog post on Monday. It runs to 57 pages as a PDF file.

The plan is aimed at cutting the travel time between San Francisco and Los Angeles to a half-hour, at a price that's less than an airline ticket between those two cities. Musk said the Hyperloop arrangement could be implemented between any pair of cities situated up to, say, 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) apart. For longer distances, air travel would probably be more efficient, he said.

Musk said he came up with the plan out of frustration with the shortcomings of California's $68 billion high-speed rail project, which is just getting started.

(Read more: Sci-fi Hyperloop-type technology under development at ET3 )

The system could also be self-powering. Musk said by placing solar panels on top of the tube, the Hyperloop can generate far in excess of the energy needed to operate.

Hyperloop could transport people, vehicles, and freight between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes, Musk said.

The passenger and vehicle version of the Hyperloop would also be 11 percent cheaper than the proposed high-speed railway between LA and San Francisco.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/musk-u...203700460.html

http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/def...loop-alpha.pdf

[kellyhound]

seems like a guy on a mission

[rapeWhistle]

Seems like he's pretty successful in his other endeavors, good luck!