“Vouloir c’est pouvoir,” is a French expression that describes the real force behind innovation. Translation: To want is to be able to (or, there’s a will there’s a way). No one is motivated more by this meme than Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who founded Pay Pal, Tesla Motors, and the first commercial “out of this world” company, Space X.
His new transportation vision is a 700 mile per hour “Hyperloop” (see Musk’s 57 page plan here) that would sit along Interstate 5 in California and get you to from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes. You travel at the speed of sound in a quiet non-turbulent controlled atmosphere. Musk says, “It’s a cross between a Concord, a rail gun and an air hockey table.”
As expensive as the system would be to build, Musk says a ticket would be cheaper than a plane ticket. He says he could build the infrastructure for about $6 billion instead of the $70 billion high-speed rail system that President Obama pitched a few years ago.
