Elon Musk said Sunday that The Boring Company is working on a high-speed tunnel linking Austin and San Antonio that could cut a drive often stretched by traffic to under 30 minutes.
In a post on X, according to a recent Electrek editorial framing the announcement and multiple other outlets that picked up the story, Musk described the project as “a simple, precursor Hyperloop tunnel between Austin and San Antonio (>200 mph).” He noted that traffic congestion can push the journey to as long as 2.5 hours and said the company “can reduce that to a consistent <30 mins.”
The announcement came in reply to an AI-generated video of a science-fiction future that Musk had shared earlier, in which he wrote,
“This is the future we shall bring into being,”
according to his X post. The Boring Company’s official account quickly endorsed the idea, stating it
“would be excited and honored to build this massive infrastructure project.”
The company added that because the system would operate as an express service with no intermediate stops, a rider could go from an Austin parking lot to a San Antonio restaurant in about 30 minutes, provided both locations have Loop stations.
The two cities sit roughly 80 miles apart by road. At average speeds above 200 mph, the trip would take around 24 minutes before accounting for acceleration, braking and station time, according to calculations based on Musk’s figures.
Musk provided no route details, cost estimates, construction timeline or information on permits and local government approvals. No formal engineering filings or partnership announcements with Texas agencies have been released.
The announcement came as Musk’s broader portfolio push continues. Hypefresh has tracked his 24/7 office grind across Tesla, xAI and Starship.
The Boring Company was founded by Musk in 2017, originally as a SpaceX subsidiary before being spun off in 2018. The company currently operates the Vegas Loop in Las Vegas, a system that moves passengers in Tesla vehicles through tunnels and surface routes centered on the convention center area. The company maintains a test track near its Bastrop, Texas, headquarters.
Many earlier proposals for larger networks have not advanced to construction. The original Hyperloop concept, proposed by Musk in a 2013 white paper, envisioned a route between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, a system that has not been built. Other proposals in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and a New York-to-Washington corridor have similarly failed to advance.
Musk has been making versions of this Hyperloop promise for more than a decade, Electrek noted in its coverage. The company’s X account has previously floated similar high-speed tunnel proposals that have not progressed to construction. Musk first floated a Hyperloop-style demonstration between Texas cities in 2022, when Boring Company was selected to build a downtown San Antonio-to-airport link that did not advance.
According to company statements, the company has recently closed a funding round whose terms Hypefresh could not independently verify. The Boring Company also operates work in the United Arab Emirates; its SpaceX parent’s Starbase facility in Texas is a separate Musk-controlled infrastructure site.
Full Hyperloop designs envisioned by the company involve autonomous electric pods traveling in low-pressure tunnels at speeds potentially exceeding 600 mph for longer distances, though no system has yet reached those speeds in testing. Virgin Hyperloop conducted the first human trial in November 2020, reaching a top speed of 107 mph.
Interstate 35 between Austin and San Antonio is among the more congested corridors in Texas, with travel times varying widely depending on the hour and day. An underground express link would bypass surface traffic entirely if built.
As of Monday, local officials in Austin and San Antonio had not publicly responded to the proposal, and no environmental reviews or right-of-way discussions had been disclosed.
Internet aggregator account Internet Hall of Fame (@InternetH0F) circulated a paraphrase of Musk’s X post Sunday, drawing more than 1,700 likes within hours.
