Is Elon Musk our real-life Tony Stark? Now he wants to build bullet trains!

Seriously? Is Elon Musk just the coolest billionaire in the world?

This guy made a motza out of Paypal. Then he turned he attention to Tesla - making electric-powered sports cars, followed by SpaceX, flying nicely now after a successful launch to the International Space Station. All companied worth in excess of a billion dollars.

And now this guy is toying with the idea of a superfast rail link between LA and San Francisco, running some three to four times faster than Japan's famous Bullet trains, via DVice:

This system I have in mind, how would you like something that can never crash, is immune to weather, it goes 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train… it goes an average speed of twice what an aircraft would do. You would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. It would cost you much less than an air ticket than any other mode of transport. I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system. There's a way to store the power so it would run 24/7 without using batteries. Yes, this is possible, absolutely.

It's well worth an hour of your time tuning into this interview with the man, via PandoDaily. He talks about many things, including the Hyperloop, wiping out a (uninsured!) McLaren F1, and even wanting to dabble in fusion. As in nuclear fusion!

I for one am glad Musk is focussing on cool ideas for a sustainable future, rather than Tony Stark's weapons focus...