How Elon Musk's Sci-Fi Hyperloop Failed

[mahatmakanejeeves]

{snip pic of Elon}
Illustrations by Yo Az.

How Elon Musk’s Sci-Fi Hyperloop Failed

Before his misadventures in government efficiency, Musk promised to revolutionize commuting with a subway that would speed passengers between DC and Baltimore in a matter of minutes. The project was a farce—and a sign of things to come.

Written by Matt Ribel | Published on February 12, 2026

“We have no idea what we’re doing,” declared Elon Musk, standing beside a yawning “test trench” in Southern California in 2017. A crowd of engineering students and tech reporters hooted and hollered, grinned and nodded, charmed that a man so brilliant could be so modest.

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This grand vision, as you may have already surmised, was never realized. Though permits were issued and politicians insisted the hyperloop was imminent, the effort died in 2021. Then it was never mentioned again. In early 2025, shortly after Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency ordered the nation’s spies to share, via email, five things they had accomplished at work the previous week, I set out to understand how the hyperloop project—his original attempt to bring private-sector innovation to the public sector—went sideways.

In the beginning, I expected to uncover a scam gone awry, a suspicion that deepened after I contacted dozens of government officials and employees of the Boring Company. Not one person who had previously advocated for the hyperloop was willing to talk, even off the record. But after I spoke with a handful of well-placed sources, it became clear there was no conspiracy, no evidence of fraud.

The truth was far simpler, far dumber, and far more prescient: Musk and his lieutenants truly had no idea what they were doing. Among most insiders, this was always apparent. But our leaders, for any number of reasons—including political opportunism and an earnest if foolhardy desire to make commuting less miserable—chose to support the effort anyway. This is the story of how fantasy becomes policy, time and again.

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[Shellback Squid]

1. he created something on his own and his only successful endeavors were someone else's idea