Now that he seems poised to purchase Twitter, what’s next for the world's richest man Elon Musk? What about changing the way people in the Crescent City go about escaping the wrath of hurricanes?
Musk was active over the weekend on the very social media platform he will soon own, tweeting out his idea for a Hyperloop, an electric pod that travels at over 600 mph through low-pressure tunnels, as a solution to the world’s traffic problems.
It wasn’t long before a Louisiana resident offered up a tweet that suggested that a hyperloop could be the solution for another long-gestating idea: a transportation method connecting New Orleans directly to Baton Rouge.
Until now, that method was expected to be an above-ground train traversing the 80 miles between the two cities that would allow passengers to avoid the daily traffic congestion that such a commute entails.
Musk’s Hyperloop has been a work-in-progress for some time as well. He first made the idea public nine years ago, but so far he hasn’t managed to build a working prototype, according to Fortune. But Musk expects that track record to change before the end of 2022.
A statement released by his Boring Co. on Monday says “testing at full-scale” of a hyperloop prototype is planned for later this year.
Still, it remains questionable as to whether any type of underground transit system would be workable with the water levels in south Louisiana, where you don’t have to dig down too far to hit H2O.
For his part, Musk hasn’t specifically proposed attempting the idea in New Orleans, so at this point it remains social media speculation, but he did at least slip into the conversation, tweeting, “Underground tunnels are immune to surface weather conditions (subways are a good example), so it wouldn't matter to Hyperloop if a hurricane was raging on the surface. You wouldn't even notice.”
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