Elon Musk’s LA Tunnel Almost Complete–And He Plans To Offer Free Rides!
What can’t this Elon Musk guy do?
Elon Musk, founder of the Boring Company, announced late last week that the tunneling startup has nearly finished building its first stretch of a Los Angeles tunnel. Musk’s announcement was accompanied by a time-lapse video on Instagram showing a round-trip journey through the tunnel.
The underground transportation system, which the company is calling Loop, would ferry autonomous electric skates around tunnels at 125 mph to 150 mph. Transportation would be point-to-point, rather than regularly stopping at multiple stations like a subway train.
Musk said the public will be offered free rides on the Loop service in the upcoming months, if the company receives regulatory approval.
Who wants a free ride? I do!
If completed, the roughly 60-mile system would position Los Angeles as the home of one of the nation’s largest underground transportation systems.
According to a Boring Company spokesperson, the Los Angeles project will require no public funding. It is counting on decreased tunneling costs to fundamentally upend the economics of building and operating a transit system.
Back in December, Musk’s company received a $266,000 sales tax exclusion from the state of California to build a new, fully automated concrete rings manufacturing facility. Once its up and running, the Boring Company says the $3 million facility will produce concrete for its tunnels four times faster than existing processes, and with 20 percent less energy and air pollutants.
