SpaceX dismantles hyperloop test tunnel

A test site for Hyperloop technology, the high-speed transportation system touted by Elon Musk, has been dismantled and is destined to become a parking lot for SpaceX employees in Hawthorne, California, Bloomberg reports.

The tunnel, which was reportedly decommissioned earlier this year, hosted tests of the still-unproven technology, which Musk's The Boring Company said would move people underground in electric pods at more than 600 miles an hour. Those speeds could get someone from Washington, DC, to New York City in 30 minutes, the company has said.

Musk has been talking about the promise of the Hyperloop since a white paper in 2013. At an event in Hawthorne in 2018, Musk suggested Hyperloop would move people around Los Angeles at speeds of 150 miles per hour for only $1 per trip. Neither the Los Angeles Hyperloop nor a faster, long-range version has been brought to fruition, though The Boring Company's website still features Hyperloop.

In April, The Boring Company said on Twitter that it would begin testing Hyperloop "at full scale" sometime this year.

The Boring Company has completed a very different network of tunnels under Las Vegas, where passengers can ride in Tesla cars.

A competing Hyperloop company, Virgin Hyperloop, was reported earlier this year to be abandoning hopes of moving passengers on its version of the technology, and would instead focus on moving freight.

Neither SpaceX nor The Boring Company immediately responded to requests for comment.