Elon Musk commented last week on the SpaceX-sponsored Hyperloop competition for engineering students, hinting that building tunnels for the technology is one of the trickiest pieces of the puzzle.
The 2019 competition was conducted in a mile-long test tube, with teams trying to reach the highest speed possible and safely bring themselves to a stop. Forty-two teams took part in this year’s contest, with the team from Technical University of Munich setting a record of 288 mph.
Musk said that next year’s competition will be held in a tube that’s over six miles long, with a curve instead of being in a straight line like the current test tube. But, eventually the plan is to build a longer Boring Company-dug tunnel.
“I don’t think we’ll have a long enough, straight enough underground tunnel a year from now but I think three years from now we definitely will,” Musk said at the competition. “So figure three years from now, we’ll at least have a couple miles.”
Musk said the company may enlist the help of students to solve the complicated task of tunneling.
“I think a tunneling thing would be pretty exciting,” Musk said. “Because as I just articulated the primary challenge is how do you tunnel effectively, especially how do you put in the reinforcing segments and get the dirt out effectively — it’s harder than it seems.”
Musk said a speed that is one-tenth that of walking – about a mile every three hours – would be a significant in his goal of building a network of underground transportation tunnels.