In late 2016, Elon Musk unveiled the concept of constructing tunnels underneath cities, to transport people and cars and to alleviate urban congestion. From that idea sprang the Boring Company and the technology to dig tunnels faster and cheaper. A slick video (shown later in this diary) was released demonstrating the concept of autonomous vehicle carriers transporting cars at high speeds underneath cities.
After some soul-searching and probably listening to city-planners and other thinkers, Elon announced last week that the design would be modified to become a people mover — that would primarily move pedestrians and cylists, cars would be treated at a lower priority.
Here are some tweets from Elon Musk explaining the concept in his own inimitable style. And a concept video that shows what essentially looks like a small bus being driven autonomously through the tunnels. This makes the new system similar to a metro bus system, that can carry passengers and bicycles, with large number of stations placed close to street corners, all moving at high speeds, with optimized vehicle scheduling software, and without fighting any pesky traffic from other cars and trucks.
The Boring Company
It all began in late 2016 with this tweet from Elon Musk -
Soon thereafter, the Boring Company was formed, with the express purpose of re-imagining urban transportation using 3D underground tunnels. Here is a blurb from the company web-site -
To solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic, roads must go 3D, which means either flying cars or tunnels. Unlike flying cars, tunnels are weatherproof, out of sight and won't fall on your head. A large network of tunnels many levels deep would fix congestion in any city, no matter how large it grew (just keep adding levels). The key to making this work is increasing tunneling speed and dropping costs by a factor of 10 or more – this is the goal of The Boring Company. Fast to dig, low cost tunnels would also make Hyperloop adoption viable and enable rapid transit across densely populated regions, enabling travel from New York to Washington DC in less than 30 minutes.
The following videos illustrated the car transportation concept — cars were carried in individual sleds at high speeds in the tunnels -
As
CwV points out below, please do not watch the following video if you are susceptible to flash induced issues.
This is all real and not vaporware. The first proof-of-concept tunnel and stations are being built in a 6.5 mile segment in L.A. They are also in talks with local governments in Maryland and Chicago.
Epilogue
Surely many hurdles remain — politics, bureaucracy, funding, environmental and safety issues, city undergrounds full of poorly mapped pipes and other infrastructure, competing technologies, ... The project may never really get off the ground.
But this change certainly seems more sensible and a move in the right direction. A metro bus system that uses a 3D underground system of tunnels instead of 2D roads congested with cars and trucks seems like a good fit for many cities across the world. Who needs flying cars?
Further Reading
- www.boringcompany.com/…
- Elon Musk says The Boring Company’s Loop will prioritize pedestrians, cyclists — arstechnica.com/…
- Elon Musk Revises The Boring Company Underground Tunnel Plan — cleantechnica.com/...
- Elon Musk hates sitting in traffic, says he’s going to build tunnels — arstechnica.com/...