After months of waiting, interesting news arrives about The Boring Company, yet another of Elon Musk's companies achieving goals.
The South African tycoon's "hole gang". is digging tunnels to connect the two ends of the Las Vegas Convention Center. A litmus test before launching similar transportation systems in all US cities, and then around the world.
Clearing the distances in Las Vegas
Once open to all, the test tunnel in Las Vegas will reduce a busy route to a “blitz” of just a few minutes, to be crossed with two modified Tesla Model 3s and Model Xs.
The vehicles will drive passengers through the approximately 2,5km stretch at speeds of up to 35 mph (56,3 kilometers per hour).
Las Vegas instantly
Once the routes have been finalized, The Boring Company will then focus on newly developed vehicles that would add passenger capacity to the convenience of the rapid route. Steve hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority has shown extreme confidence in this solution in a statement these days.
The mystery of “high capacity” vehicles
Among Hill's advances on the Las Vegas tunnel, one sobering: Tesla could build 16-passenger vehicles. The comment is not very clear, and no one knows how they might look (given the size of the tunnels they would be a sort of large limousine).
What I think is that in times of pandemic it doesn't seem like a great idea to increase the "capacity" of a means of transport. The trend is the opposite, and Las Vegas is no exception. Who knows tomorrow, though.
The precedent of 2018
It seems like a century ago, but only in 2018 Elon Musk shared rendering of futuristic spaceships passengers capable of accommodating 16 people at a time. The Las Vegas tunnels will feature highly changing and dynamic LED lighting, which promises to transform the boring, white tunnels into a source of visual entertainment.
A 16-person vehicle could make The Boring Co.'s tunnels more efficient, sure. Once completed, the tunnels will transfer Convention Center passengers between three different stations.
Moving hundreds of thousands of visitors from one part of Las Vegas to another two at a time sounds equally strange.
