Elon Musk has an ambitious goal to decongest traffic through underground tunnels and he’s now shared footage of the project, but tread lightly.
The video comes with a warning that it might trigger seizures or cause motion sickness. It shows a test run of an electric sled that would swiftly move cars through the tunnels at 125 mph (200 km/h), automatically shifting from one tunnel to another. The video description further notes that with this sled, a commute from Westwood to LAX would take just five minutes. In regular Los Angeles traffic, that commute can take up to 45 minutes.
The Boring Company
Elon Musk has plenty of ambitious projects and technology ventures. He’s currently the CEO of three companies – Tesla, SpaceX and, more recently, Neuralink – and he’s constantly expanding his portfolio.
In a bid to revolutionize the way we travel, Musk came up with The Boring Company to develop a network of tunnels to transport cars underground at high speeds. The aforementioned electric sled just whisks vehicles across great distances, unencumbered by congested traffic.
Elon Musk Shares Test Run Of First Boring Company Tunnel
The first test tunnel is still in development, but the latest video nonetheless shows promising progress. Musk adds that besides the commute between Westwood and LAX, the tunnels will later cover LAX to Culver City, Sherman Oaks, and Santa Monica as well. Further down the line, Musk hopes to cover the whole greater Los Angeles area with his network of underground tunnels.
Musk also shared images of the first boring machine during final assembly, noting that when it’s done it will be “a few hundred feet long.”
Another video shows the entrance and the insides of the first tunnel, as well as the first tunnel-boring machine, dubbed Godot as in Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett’s famous Theater of the Absurd play about procrastination and existential doubt.
Reducing Traffic Congestion
The underground tunnel system should significantly reduce traffic congestion and dramatically cut commute times, allowing for high-speed travel that would take just a few minutes.
SpaceX senior engineer Steve Davis is leading the development of technology for The Boring Company’s tunnels, and Musk previously revealed that the transportation system should eventually fit roughly 30 layers of tunnels and a hyperloop.
Challenges
The Boring Company is still in its infancy for now, but it holds great promise for a faster and more secure way to travel. It remains unclear for now, however, whether Musk and his Boring Company have obtained the necessary approvals from the city and government, especially considering that the area is seismically active.
California is predisposed to earthquakes, which might pose a serious challenge to Musk’s high-tech network of underground tunnels.
Considering that President Donald Trump has selected Musk as one of his strategic and policy forum advisors, however, Musk is in a good position to propose and conduct ambitious projects like The Boring Company.
Would you go for a ride inside Musk’s high-speed underground tunnels? Check out the video below to get a better idea of the project, but keep in mind that you might get nauseous just watching it.
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