After the first promising round of funding last July, Elon Musk enters the final phase of the first project that will bring cars into tunnels built under Los Angeles.
The Boring Company is Musk's startup that includes both excavation and transportation technologies to quickly build a network of tunnels under the cities.
A “Low Cost” startup
Unlike the other major investments of the South African-Canadian-American tycoon (hyperloops, SpaceX, Tesla e Neuralink), The Boring Company it's a project Musk says he spends no more than 2-3% of his time on.
The employees of the startup they are contracted to work in other Musk companies and are involved part-time in the project. Yet, even with “so little effort,” Musk is developing a pretty good transportation system.
What does the Boring Company do?
An enormous "digger worm" creates underground tunnels very quickly, incorporating everything needed for electrical and ventilation systems into the excavated sections. Godot digs and sets up at the same time, cutting the timing enormously.
In the tunnels built by the Boring Company, cars do not travel freely to bypass surface traffic, but are "pulled" by special electric sleds until they reach a speed of around 210km per hour. Enough to cover the entire city belt in 5 minutes, destroying delays and traffic.
If you don't believe it, take a look for yourself: in this video there is a comparison between the times of the Boring tunnel and those of city traffic. The car is the same, and I bet you already know the model :)
In a carriage, you get off
To take cars the equivalent of 30 floors underground, Boring Company also builds a network of elevators scattered throughout the city. Access points where the car positions itself and is transported down into the tunnels, ready to go.
Here are the first pictures of a working lift. Musk himself posted them on his Instagram account:
Contacts with the Los Angeles administration continue apace, as does the work demonstrated by Musk's social media. The first stretch, between downtown LA and Westwood, will reduce to 5 minutes a journey that can take up to an hour depending on traffic.
