In 2015, Ashlee Vance’s biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future was published to an audience eager to consume a hagiography of the man supposedly saving the world and preparing us to colonize the stars. But buried within those 300-odd pages was an admission that many people seemed to have glossed over.

On the subject of the Hyperloop, Vance wrote,
”Musk told me that the idea originated out of his hatred for California’s proposed high-speed rail system. … He insisted the Hyperloop would cost about $6 billion to $10 billion, go faster than a plane, and let people drive their cars onto a pod and drive out into a new city. At the time, it seemed that Musk had dished out the Hyperloop proposal just to make the public and legislators rethink the high-speed train. He didn’t actually intend to build the thing. … With any luck, the high-speed rail would be canceled. Musk said as much to me during a series of e-mails and phone calls leading up to the announcement.”

Paris Marx – Disconnect