The Boring Company revealed pictures of futuristic buses that they are planning to use in their innovative tunnel systems, according to The Boring Company’s official website.
These buses seem to be able to hold many people, including having multiple passengers with bikes. Bikes, due to their size, are usually difficult to deal with during transportation. Official subway rules in New York City encourage bikers to avoid rush hours because of conflict that can occur due to limited space, according to New York City Department of Transportation’s official website. The bus would be able to transport them underground in tunnels without the hassle. Pictures of the construction of these tunnels can be found on their website here.
The Boring Company’s first prototype of the tunnels was leaked back in February when an employee of the company posted a photo of a tunnel with The Boring Company’s logo on the side on Instagram, according to Wired. The post was later taken down.
Elon Musk further discussed his ambitions with a tunnel system in a TED Talk recorded in April of this year. In the discussion, Musk explains how these tunnels would work and how The Boring Company’s goal is to decrease “soul-destroying” traffic entirely.
“First of all, you have to be able to integrate the entrance and exit of the tunnel seamlessly into the fabric of of the city,” said Musk. “By having… a sort of car skate that’s on an elevator, you can integrate the entrance and exits to the tunnel network just by using two parking spaces.”
The cars would then pick up speeds up to 200 kilometers per hour (or 130 miles per hour) to get people to their destination quicker, “so you should really get from, say, Westwood to LAX in six minutes… five/six minutes,” said Musk. The full video of Elon Musk’s TED Talk can be found on the TED Talks official YouTube page.
On The Boring Company’s official website are more reasons why tunnels should be used for traffic. Some of these reasons include that the tunnels would be weatherproof, construction of these tunnels won’t be loud or annoying because it will all be taking place underground, and multiple tunnels can be built depending on the severity on of the traffic.
While projects like this may seem expensive (the website listing that it can cost up to $1 billion to create a mile of tunnel), The Boring Company vows that it will be able to decrease the cost by making the tunnels only one lane each and make the “car skates” faster. The Boring Company also addresses any danger this project could have in case of natural disasters, saying that past earthquakes in Los Angeles didn’t destroy its roads. Even the dirt dug up for the project will be created into bricks for construction in order to recycle one of Earth’s most prevalent resources. More information on the tunnel projects can be found on The Boring Company’s frequently asked questions page.
Elon Musk is known for his ambitious ventures, including being the CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla. His goal with Tesla is to mass-produce electric run cars, and the company has recently surpassed General Motors to be the most valuable U.S. car maker, according to Biography. His other company, SpaceX, was the first private company to send a spacecraft into space in 2012, and has since been testing out using reusable parts on spacecraft. As of 2017, Elon Musk is worth $15.6 billion, according to Forbes.
A video of The Boring Company’s tunnel design and how it should work can be found on The Boring Company’s official YouTube page. There currently is no date as to when construction for these tunnels will start or end listed on the website.
Featured image via Wikipedia.
