Elon Musk shares first look into The Boring Company’s ‘disturbingly long’ tunnel
- Elon Musk tweeted a walk-through video of the first Boring Company tunnel over the weekend.
- The time-lapse video shows a lengthy tunnel for the company’s autonomous pods, which it says can travel at up to 150 mph.
The Boring Company’s first tunnel under the streets of Los Angeles appears to be taking shape.
CEO Elon Musk heralded the completion on Twitter on Saturday, describing the tunnel as “disturbingly long,” saying it was “on track for opening party Dec 10,” and including a mesmerizing time-lapse video of the tunnel’s full length.
According to the company’s website, passengers will enter a “pod” vehicle, which can hold eight to 16 people, that is then lowered into the tunnel.
Even with 16 people per “skate,” the capacity of the system would be a tiny fraction of a traditional subway system. The New York City subway, for example, can carry up to 2,000 passengers in a 10-car train, handling 24 of those trains per hour.
The system is designed to transport individual cars — but will prioritize pedestrians and cyclists — at speeds of up to 150 mph, the company’s website says.
The tunnel walls have vertical “curbs” to keep the skates in line as they travel, as well as a walkway for maintenance and emergency exits, according to The Boring Company.
Speaking with Recode, Musk said that eventually there could be 100 levels of tunnels below streets.
“We do expect to, over time, create a network of tunnels under greater LA,” he said. “And I think this is really the key to getting around the city very fast. You’ve got to go 3D.”
He added: “You could certainly have a subway system which had many layers of tunnels, but the tunnels are so prohibitively expensive that they don’t do it. But you can go down 100 levels if you want to — you could have 100 layers of tunnels on top of each other.”
Musk continued: “The key is a massive improvement in tunneling technology. That’s the linchpin. That’s fundamentally what it amounts to.”
Source: Business Insider
