Why did Elon Musk change his mind on personally building the Hyperloop project?

Imagine you are a doctor. You have invested hundreds of thousands into going to Medical School and finally opening your own practice. You are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and you have a lot of work to do to be successful.

Finally, after spending 30 years working through Med School, you are doctor with your own practice. Your business is on track to be successful and you devote hundreds of hours into making sure that everything goes perfectly.

But then you have an idea. It is radical. You have an idea for a new medical drug. It is an amazing idea and everyone knows it. But you just spent 30 years trying to be a doctor. If you decide to work on this new idea, you are starting over from nothing.

This new “miracle drug” would work wonders. So you publish your drug in an open-source publication where anyone can steal your idea. You do this in 2011.

For years, people work on the drug, but there is no serious effort. There is never any serious creation of the drug you came up. For 6 years, no body does anything with your drug.

You are angered. You came up with this amazing idea! It will save millions of lives! It is revolutionary and no one is seriously doing it! Why?!

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Musk feels the same way. He spent billions of dollars working on SpaceX and Tesla and is reluctant to start from the bottom-up again. So, in 2011, he open-sources the plan for Hyperloop expecting his revolutionary idea to become the hottest tech of the 21st century.

6 years later, barely anyone is able to cross 300 miles per hour when Musk’s math showed that 700mph is possible. 6 years later, some people have half-assed the Hyperloop but no serious efforts at the 700mph Hyperloop have been made.

Musk is angered. He came up with this amazing idea! It will save millions of lives through reduced carbon emissions! It is revolutionary and no one is seriously doing it!

Musk is only human. He wants his amazing ideas to be taken seriously. Some cool science fair projects have been done but no real innovation has been done. Musk, seeing no one else is willing to do it, finally believes he is the only one who will.