[Rizzo]

^ That's what I pointed out earlier. Mankind lacks competency in construction precision at that scale. Any sort of deviance in the tunnel profile would create extreme turbulence that would destroy the vehicle. Even if you could build the tunnel, you are at the mercy of Earth's forces causing subsidence and creep in the construction. I suppose one solution is building a vehicle entirely monolithic. Maybe 3D printed out of some super strength material where bonds could resist some pretty extreme forces.

Ideally this thing needs to be designed to be fast but within reasonable tolerances of construction. Plus it must be engineered to withstand schedules of deferred maintenance. America's bridges in comparison would be much cheaper and easier to maintain and how are we doing with that track record?

Musk is successful and convincing in his ideas because he achieves just above the curve of innovation. But this idea is way off in the future. By then our priorities may change as well as our attitudes on mobility. Is the shorter time it takes to get across the country make us better as a society or can we do more with faster planes?