Elon Musk posted new transit plans on social media, claiming that his tunneling startup, The Boring Company, is designing a simplified precursor Hyperloop system to connect Austin and San Antonio. According to Musk, the high-speed transit line would cut travel times between the two Texas cities down to under 30 minutes.
Following Musk’s public statement, official channels for The Boring Company reposted his comments, adding that team members feel excited and honored to take on such a massive infrastructure build.
However, many past transit projects announced by The Boring Company never made it past early pitch phases. High-profile tunnel proposals across Chicago, Los Angeles, and a direct line running between New York City and Washington, D.C., failed to materialize. Right now, the company’s only active commercial deployment operates in Las Vegas, running a fleet of electric vehicles through underground tunnels and surface routes. Despite mixed progress on past projects, the tunneling startup recently secured a $3 billion investment round led by funds from the United Arab Emirates.
Musk shared his Texas Hyperloop comments while replying to an AI-generated video showing sci-fi imagery of human colonies living on distant planets. Re-posting the generated video clip, Musk declared that his companies intend to make that exact sci-fi vision a reality.
Critics frequently point out that Musk bases major engineering projects on pulp science fiction tropes and classic comic book ideas. Historian Jill Lepore noted in a recent interview that Musk leans into sci-fi narratives that completely contradict his stated political stances.
Building an underground vacuum tube route across central Texas requires immense engineering, land rights acquisition, and state regulatory approval. While tunneling projects in Las Vegas show that The Boring Company can dig short passenger loops, building long-distance high-speed tube systems between major metropolitan areas remains an unproven concept.
Texas commuters currently face heavy highway traffic along the Interstate 35 corridor connecting Austin and San Antonio. Cutting that commute down to 30 minutes sounds ideal for regional workers, but state transportation planners remain cautious until The Boring Company submits official permits, structural designs, and environmental impact assessments.
Whether this central Texas project turns into real infrastructure or joins the long list of abandoned tunnel ideas remains to be seen. For now, the pitch serves as another bold vision for Musk’s underground transit plans.