According to Elon Musk, The Boring Company will unveil its first ever commercial tunnel next year.
Located in Las Vegas, the tunnel aims to combat heavy traffic in the city with an underground route that connects Las Vegas Convention Center to the Strip.
Musk revealed that the tunnel should be “fully operational” come 2020, and will be the “first of many tunnel networks beneath cities.”
“The objective reality for large cities worldwide is that efforts to solve traffic have not worked well,” he said in a tweet. He added that if nobody tried anything new, everyone would be stuck in “traffic hell forever.”
In addition to having reduced the cost and time taken to build the tunnels, The Boring Company ensured that construction of the tunnel would not affect the current infrastructure.
Passenger pods and cars would travel along these tunnels through electric skates at up to 155mph before surfacing back to the top.
The area cost US$10 million to dig, and according to Musk, only electric vehicles will have access to the tunnels. This is to prevent them from being choked up with toxic fumes.
A spokesperson from the Las Vegas and Visitors Authority told CNN that the tunnel might open in time for the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show in January, but the rumor hasn’t been confirmed by The Boring Company itself.
Certainly worth trying! The objective reality for large cities worldwide is that efforts to solve traffic have not worked well. If we don’t try *something* new, we will be in traffic hell forever.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2019
Tesla in @boringcompany tunnel with retractable wheel gear that turns a car into a rail-guided train & back again pic.twitter.com/3a6i0NoSmi
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2018
[via Independent, opening image via Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com] http://www.designtaxi.com/news/408046/Elon-Musk-Announces-First-Commercial-Tunnel-For-Electric-Cars-Will-Open-In-2020/