Virginia Postrel, Columnist

Elon Musk's Hyperloop Is Doomed for the Worst Reason

Regulations are killing America's boldest dreams.

August 3, 2017 at 12:30 PM UTC

Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University and author, most recently, of “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.”

Stacks upon stacks.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Newsmakers via Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

When Elon Musk tweeted that he had “verbal govt approval” to build a Hyperloop to carry passengers from New York to Washington in half an hour, everyone with a lick of sense about transportation rolled their eyes. It was obviously delusion, fantasy, and hype -- science-fiction nonsense.

QuickTake Elon Musk