Entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk tweeted earlier today that he "Pulled all nighter working on Hyperloop (as did others). Hopefully not too many mistakes. Will publish link at 1:30 PDT)."
So far, what we know about the Hyperloop concept is that it would be capable of whisking passengers between downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. That's 380 miles at Mach 0.9. And it would accomplish that by being a "cross between a Concorde, a rail gun, and air hockey table," as Musk told a D11 conference last May.
Also, besides being much less expensive than California's planned high-speed-rail project, the Hyperloop would be immune to weather, would never crash, and could be made "self-powering if you put solar panels on it ... would run 24/7 without using batteries," as Musk said at a PandoDaily event last year (approximately 45 minutes into the video).
Last month, Musk tweeted: "Will publish Hyperloop alpha design by Aug 12. Critical feedback for improvements would be much appreciated."
Interest in the Hyperloop had been on the back burner until that tweet, but after he mentioned an actual date for the release of preliminary plans, people started watching, and asking.
During Tesla Motors' second-quarter earnings call last Wednesday, Musk fielded a question asking if Tesla shareholders would benefit from the Hyperloop.
Musk came across a little sheepish in his answer: "I don't know ... I think I kind of shot myself by ever mentioning Hyperloop, because obviously I have to focus on core Tesla business and SpaceX business and that's more than enough ..."
But, he continued, "I did commit to publishing a design and provide quite a detailed design ... and then ... see if the people can find ways to improve it ... kind of like a open source design ... I don't have any plan to execute, because I must remain focused on SpaceX and Tesla."
Everyone else has a couple more hours to wait for Musk's next salvo on Hyperloop.
