Elon Musk NY to DC hyperloop could break ground later this year

The Boring Company released a statement following Musk's tweets saying its talks with officials should lead to breaking ground on a tunnel "later this year." If Musk truly is considering starting a new company to build a hyperloop, his track record with Tesla and SpaceX signals a major shake-up among the small group of start-ups that are getting closer to building these futuristic transportation platforms.

Brogan BamBrogan (x-Spacex engineer and former Hyperloop One CTO) recently started a competing Hyperloop company here called Arrivo.

All three main hyperloop companies - Hyperloop One, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), and newly minted Arrivo are working to create the near mach speed (700 mph) Hyperloop transport system.

They believe that some Hyperloop system will be commercialized within 3-5 years.

Hyperloop One, a start-up that has raised some $150 million in funding, recently revealed that in May its engineers had succeeded in getting a prototype up to 70 mph in a 500-meter tube, and that 250 mph is the company's the next milestone.

It continues to tout a variety of feasibility studies and agreements inked with municipal officials in Europe and the Middle East, including landing $50 million in investment from DP World to explore ways to bring cargo ashore from freighters using underwater tubes.

Engineering team lead Giegel says the appeal for countries such as Dubai include "being able to skip a generation of transportation technology, say trains, and move right to hyperloop to showcase the newest in tech."

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, has, much like Hyperloop One, a number of feasibility studies in the works around the globe with a specific focus on passenger transportation solutions.

CEO Ahlborn reels off a long list of hyperloop studies partnerships in countries that include the Czech Republic, Indonesia, UAE and France. He says that HTT's collaborative approach that leverages essentially volunteer engineering talent keeps the operation's expenses down, which means less of a race against a burn-rate clock.