3 ms·

I don't think it can be underground, since Musk said it would cost $6 billion to build. Also, the plan is to build something similar for east-west coast travel,

• softbuilder 13y ago
  The other consideration aside from cost is that seismic activity, even minor, can skew a tunnel. (Edit: for deep tunnels, that is. I have no idea about tunnels right below the surface.) That's bad news at high speed. I've given the tunnel approach some thought.[1] And I keep hearing people trying to apply Hyperloop to coast-to-coast travel, but I don't recall Elon every saying anything about that long of a distance. In fact I recall him specifically talking about "the right city pairs", which implies some kind of distance limit. [1] http://www.youell.com/matt/writing/?p=1050 http://www.youell.com/matt/writing/?p=1050
• dancryer 13y ago
  In an interview, Elon said that the system could work underground but that it would be more cost effective above ground...
• Justsignedup 13y ago
  the time to travel between ny and sf can be the time it takes me to come to work. they'd make that 6 billion back in a month.
• eyesee 13y ago
  I do wonder if there's something specific about LA to SF that enables the low low cost Elon's suggesting. Like the fact that they share a coastline with the Pacific Ocean. The $6 billion cost seems too good to be true for any transportation system that would require significant land acquisition. California is set to spend some $60 billion on a train between these cities, and most of that cost is for right-of-way.