Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to dig tunnels beneath pretty much everything is catching on. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s economic advisor Gary Cohn gave Musk’s Boring Company a public shout m-out on CNBC, saying that he had consulted the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla on how to implement Trump’s plan for infrastructure.
“Elon also thinks we can tunnel the entire United States,” Cohn said. “We can’t really build high-speed rail in the East Coast corridor because it’s too curvy,” he explained, saying that there are too many businesses and residences in the way for the government to feasibly designate the land for a straight high-speed rail route. “Elon Musk says, ‘Ok, I can solve the problem. I can tunnel the whole way,’” Cohn said.
Musk has been busy digging holes in the SpaceX parking lot for the past two months and is expecting to start tunneling in earnest with a new boring machine in April. In early March, Trump reportedly asked for more information on hyperloop, Musk’s plan for a high-speed transit network of vacuum-sealed tubes that could propel transport pods at over 700 miles per hour. Musk has repeatedly alluded to the obvious connection between the Boring Company and hyperloop. He’s also downplayed the importance of flying cars, saying that future cities’ transit problems would be much easier to solve with a “30-layer network” of tunnels rather than aerial taxis.
Musk has been criticized for his position on the president’s business advisory council by fans and observers who feel Musk’s ostensibly progressive values clash with the new administration’s agenda. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick cut public ties with the Trump Administration after similar public pressure (and several PR disasters), but Musk stood firm, claiming that he would rather work from the inside to bring the president around on key issues. While Musk doesn’t seem to have made much headway in areas like immigration, Cohn’s comments are obvious proof that the administration is considering his opinion on transportation. As the CEO of a car and energy company with aspirations toward a hyperloop-friendly future, Musk certainly doesn’t mind having the ear of the president’s key advisors.
