If you read the article, it points out he has barely said a word about the Hyperloop since 2013. The pod-racing competition aspect was also covered in the article.
It will be pretty cool if he pulls it off, transportation hasn't really changed a whole lot in the last 100 years or so, the Hyperloop might be the next evolutionary step. Starting small for inner-city light rail type transport, then country to city type services and then eventually country-to-country. The test loop will determine the rough cost per metre for track, operational expenses, hazards and other factors a simulation cannot really accurately tell you.
I think you're a little off on the 100 years bit.
30 years maybe.
The first jet was the German Heinkel He 178 built in 1939. First jet airliner wasn't until 1952. First high speed train was 1962.
If you bought a car 100 years ago, the wheels would come with wooden spokes, it had 2 speeds and a reverse. There was a transmission brake but no brakes on the wheels. No clutch. You had to crank the engine by hand to start it.
>> transportation hasn't really changed a whole lot in the last 100 years or so
This is mainly because it really hasn't needed to. See most smaller European and Scandinavian countries where public transportation works well and riding bikes is far more common than it is here in the US. There's no need to go form one end of a country to another in 10 minutes.
I mean, in Germany, you can get a plan ticket to fly from Liechtenstein to Hamburg in about 60 minutes for around $300. Otherwise, it's about an 8 hour drive in your car. And that's one end of the country to the other.
I'm sure someone would pay to go from one end of the country to the other in a few minutes, but I can't think it's going to be cheap.
I see the hyperloop's best use case in those countries as high speed package delivery. While you may not have a reason to go across the country in 10 minutes, you might want to have your online purchase shipped across the country in 10 minutes.
I don't know, I'd love to go across the country in 10 minutes. I live in Seattle and have a lot of friends and former co-workers that live in NYC/DC/Boston/Philly. Flying is expensive and miserable. Looping (Can we figure out a gerund for this? Looping sounds wrong) over to Brooklyn for drinks and then heading home sounds awesome. I think it would open up rapid transit in a way that just isn't possible for flight.
In my younger days I had a PVC potato gun which everyone referred to as a "fffoooooont cannon", due to the sound it made when you ignited the hairspray.
I imagine a hyperloop pod taking off down the tube will have a similar, but more awesome, sound.
I'd happily announce that I was about to fffoooooont across the country to visit someone.
100 years ago there were no commercial fixed wing aircraft, just a few zeppelins. Transportation hasn't really changed a whole lot in the last 50 years or so.
Looks like he's also planning on having an annual pod-racing competition: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/555804403504918528