[Perceval]

Yes and no. Automation of the intermodal cargo transportation system should be within our means.

However, finding a place where you can build a pilot of an automated port is very hard.

SpaceX didn't build new spaceports to achieve its success, it used Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg, both of which are old legacy spaceports that weren't designed for SpaceX's cadence or cost structure (they were designed for the Atlas and Delta and ICBM tests etc).

If you wanted to be the SpaceX of ports, you'd need to find a location that could accommodate large cargo ships, and I guarantee that every potential natural harbor location for scalable traffic in cargo ships along both seaboards was figured out centuries ago. Where are you going to set up that doesn't have existing infrastructure sitting there as either a path-dependent sunk cost or expensive tear-down operation? Where are you going to set up that doesn't already have the port work controlled by union labor?