The Boring Company says it is working on a 200-mph Texas Hyperloop
The 80-mile concept would dwarf The Boring Company's completed tunnels and demands an average speed near 160 mph.
By Ryan Merket · Published
Primary source: X
Why it matters
Musk has moved an old Texas demo idea into active-project language, testing whether The Boring Company's short urban tunnels can scale to intercity transit.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) says The Boring Company is working on a Hyperloop precursor between Austin and San Antonio that would exceed 200 mph and cut a traffic-choked trip to less than 30 minutes.
Musk described the project in a September 20th post on X, replying beneath an AI-generated vision of futuristic cities, spacecraft and planetary settlements. His transportation claim was considerably more concrete: The Boring Company, Musk wrote, is working on a "simple, precursor Hyperloop tunnel" linking the two Texas cities.
The wording moves an old Musk idea closer to active-project language. In August 2022, Musk floated what he called a "much simplified" demonstration tunnel between Austin and San Antonio. At the time, he framed it as something that "would be cool" to build. Four years later, he says work is underway, though his post consists of a speed target and a travel-time claim rather than a route, construction plan or launch schedule.
A much longer tunnel
Austin and San Antonio are about 80 road miles apart, according to Austin's official visitor bureau, with a normal drive estimated at one hour and 20 minutes. Musk said congestion can stretch the journey to two and a half hours.
Covering 80 miles in 30 minutes requires an average speed of roughly 160 mph. A system would need a higher cruising speed to make room for acceleration, braking and any station time, making Musk's greater-than-200-mph target consistent with the claimed journey time. The post does not establish whether the tunnel would run between the city centers, airports or stations near the Interstate 35 corridor.
The scale would put The Boring Company well beyond its operating record. Its principal passenger network, the Vegas Loop, transports riders in Tesla vehicles through normal-pressure tunnels. The Boring Company says that network has carried more than 4 million passengers through 14 stations, while local authorities have approved a much larger expansion.
The completed Las Vegas Convention Center section spans 2.1 miles and five stations. An Austin-San Antonio connection would therefore require The Boring Company to move from short urban segments to an intercity tunnel stretching dozens of miles through multiple jurisdictions.
Hyperloop also involves a different technical system from the Las Vegas service. The Boring Company defines Hyperloop as autonomous electric pods traveling through low-pressure tubes at more than 600 mph. Musk's proposed Texas precursor would target roughly one-third of that speed.
The Boring Company has tested parts of the concept near its Bastrop, Texas, research base. According to its Hyperloop test-tunnel page, The Boring Company constructed a short tunnel in 2022 to test vacuum-pump systems. Student teams previously reached 288 mph on a one-mile SpaceX test track, but The Boring Company has not operated a commercial passenger Hyperloop.
A $3B balance sheet meets an old promise
Musk's post landed 11 days after The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D at a $23 billion valuation. The United Arab Emirates and affiliated entities led the round, joined by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Temasek, Vy Capital, Human Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Shamal Holding and Baron Capital.
The Boring Company said that capital would support more than 150 kilometers of planned underground infrastructure in the UAE, along with hiring and its Loop projects in Las Vegas, Nashville and Dubai. Musk did not connect the Texas concept to that financing. The timing nevertheless places a far larger technical ambition beside a valuation built mainly on shorter tunnel systems and projects still under construction.
The Austin-San Antonio corridor is a credible target for a transportation pitch. The Texas Department of Transportation calls Interstate 35 the main connection between the two regions and says opportunities to expand it are limited. A separate TxDOT study covers a 46-mile central section of the corridor where population and employment growth are increasing pressure on the highway.
Turning Musk's statement into construction will require a defined alignment, station sites, right-of-way agreements, environmental reviews, emergency-access plans and a financing structure for an intercity tunnel. The vehicle design matters as well: a low-pressure pod system presents a different operating and safety case from the Tesla-based Loop that The Boring Company runs today.
Musk has now upgraded the proposal from a demonstration he once said might be cool to a system The Boring Company says it is working on. The next meaningful milestone will be physical evidence of that work: a route, permits, geotechnical surveys or construction sites along the corridor.