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Seriously? Compared to that design evacuating the tunnel would make a lot of sense, as would going a lot slower than the speed of sound.

Now when Elon says it's not an evacuated tunnel, and also (indirectly) that you'll be traveling more or less exactly at the speed of sound, I'm leaning quite heavily towards the OP.

Didn't EM say it wasn't pressurised? Could be misdirection, mind.

No, he said that it is "not an evacuated tunnel".

The pressure peaks in a sound wave don't really equate to a pressurized tunnel.. just a localized pressure gradient moving at the speed of sound.

That doesn't address all the nightmarish issues of traveling at 600-700 MPH through pressurized air.

Riding the pressure peak at exactly the speed of sound makes a lot more sense.

Not travelling through pressurized air.... travelling with the pressurized air. The idea behind the article I linked is that the entire system moves as a cohesive mass -- air, vehicles, and all.