The completed section of the Central Valley segment of California’s high-speed rail system near Fresno.

Last week at Tesla’s AI Day 2022, CEO Elon Musk unveiled the company’s new humanoid robot, dubbed Optimus with the goal of making “a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible.” 

While it’s unclear where this proof of concept will lead, it can’t be any more underwhelming than the tech billionaire’s foray into mass transit.

In 2013, Musk proposed a Hyperloop system that would suck passengers in pods through a vacuum tube from Los Angeles to San Francisco at 760 miles per hour  — over three times as fast as the state’s bullet train then under construction promised and at a fraction of the cost. Musk’s 58-page Hyperloop proposal caused a stir, leading many in Silicon Valley and around the state to question whether California’s monumental project had been rendered obsolete.

Then it came to light that the world’s richest man never intended to prove out the futuristic Hyperloop technology or build the proposed suction tube. Musk reportedly told his biographer, Ashlee Vance, that the Hyperloop proposal was motivated by “his hatred for California’s proposed high-speed rail system,” which he felt would be too slow, outdated and expensive. “With any luck, the high-speed rail would be canceled,” Vance wrote.

But whether Musk likes it or not, high-speed rail is the future of transportation. Instead of trying to sabotage it, he could help shape it.

Americans love their cars, and Musk has provided a pathbreaking innovation with the Tesla. But vehicles, whether electric or gas-powered, remain a low-capacity and unsafe mode of transportation. If we double down on the car’s monopoly over the surface transportation system, we are heading toward a future of ever-worsening congestion that stifles our economy, sets back our fight against climate change and continues to kill some 40,000 people on roads every year.

Musk’s alleged effort to kill the California high-speed rail is reminiscent of General Motors, Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) and Firestone Tire’s infamous attack on electric rail streetcars and trolleys in Los Angeles and across the country during the 1930s and 1940s. Dubbed “The Great Transportation Conspiracy” by Harpers Magazine, GM, allegedly seeking to wipe out its primary modal competitors, acquired and tore out the popular streetcars and replaced them with inferior bus systems. The campaign helped pave the way for a lifestyle dependent on cars and oil we have that is draining our pocketbooks and fueling the destruction of the climate.

Fortunately, when completed, the California State Rail Plan will erase this legacy with a comprehensive transit system projected to increase rail trips 10-fold to over 1.3 million per day by 2040, causing major shifts away from polluting cars and short-hop flights. For perspective, it would take 3,000 Boeing 747s to move that many passengers every day. The plan would also divert 88 million passenger miles daily from highways to rail.

California is building one of the most advanced high-speed rail systems in the world, capable of speeds up to 220 mph — faster than the majority of the world’s high-speed rail systems currently in operation. The trains include the latest technological advances — from proven automation systems and precision guidance to advanced power deployment and sustainable materials. Once operational, California’s high-speed rail system will be the most high-tech electric vehicle on Earth.

Meanwhile, nine years after Musk’s proposal, Hyperloop technology is still unproven and far from operational. His major achievement to date: a tunnel under the Las Vegas Convention Center, where Teslas shuttle riders 1.7 miles from one end of the center to the other.

In the meantime, tens of thousands of miles of high-speed rail lines are operating all over the world, carrying billions of passengers every year.

In the end, Musk failed to derail California’s visionary shift toward a balanced, electrified transportation system with high-speed rail as its backbone, along with electric vehicles, local transit and walkable, bike-friendly communities.

In June, the California Legislature approved a $4.2 billion appropriation to help complete the project’s first operating segment, along with another $7.65 billion for rail transit. The California High-Speed Rail Authority continues to pursue federal funding to advance the project. Voter support for high-speed rail remains strong.

In April, Musk tweeted that his Boring Co. would attempt to build a working Hyperloop. Whether that intention leads to anything more dynamic than another tunnel for Teslas remains to be seen.  

Although Musk once proclaimed public transit “sucks,” it’s not too late for him to pivot and work on creating practical, real-world solutions to America’s transportation challenges. Yes, Teslas and other electric vehicles have a critical role to play but investing in high-speed rail is key.

Andy Kunz is president and CEO of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association. Ezra Silk is political director of the U.S. High Speed Rail Coalition.