The metropolis of Las Vegas has approve a $ 48.6 million contract for Elon Musk ’s Boring Company to build an belowground transit line that ’s scheduled to be completed by January 2021 , just in time for the Consumer Electronics Show . But it remains to be seen whether Musk ’s high - speed transportation conception can really survive up to the hype .
The fresh transit project , dubbed the LVCC Loop , will colligate the Las Vegas Convention Center ’s New Exhibit Hall with other convention halls down the street . It presently takes 15 to 20 min to walk from the New Exhibit Hall to the other halls . That same distance will take about 1 second with the fresh underground LVCC Loop , agree to theBoring Company .
But it rest to be reckon whether the Boring Company ’s fresh Loop will just be a regular Tesla Model X in a tunnel . Because that ’s all Musk has been able-bodied to deliver so far .
The entrance to an underground Boring Company tunnel in Las Vegas, as depicted in a computer renderingIllustration: (The Boring Company)
Musk catch a lot of insistency when he first announced that he ’d be bringing the Boring Company ’s so - called Loop applied science ( not to be confused with the Hyperloop concept ) to city like Chicago and Los Angeles . But when his test tunnel opened in L.A. back in December , it became clear that there was n’t any radical technology at work . Musk had “ invented ” driving a automobile through a burrow .
“ The slip through the burrow take about two minutes , illuminated by the automobile ’s headlights and a strip of blue neon light hang on to the ceiling , ” L.A. Times transportation reporter Laura J. Nelsonwrote at the time . “ The Model X roll on two mold concrete shelves along the rampart , which were so odd in place that it feel like tantalise on a dirt route . ”
When Musk first pitched his Loop idea , we saw glitzy videos of large autonomous vehicles that could hold up to 16 mass . But while the concept telecasting looked like something out of Tron or Minority Report , the world was much different .
Gif: (The Boring Company/Vimeo)
This is what Musk promised :
And this is what Musk delivered at his 1 - geographical mile test burrow in Los Angeles back in December :
The L.A. demo was just a psychometric test , but it was disappointing by almost every measure . The Boring Company presentation have human drivers in regular Tesla vehicles move at rough 35 miles per 60 minutes . The ride and was so jumpy that it gave one newsperson motion nausea , according to theAssociated Press . The entire experience was a far cry from the futurist idea that were being promised . And that ’s the gamble that the metropolis of Las Vegas has taken .
Photo: (AP)
At the end of the day , it seems like Las Vegas is banking on the novelty of throw something built by Elon Musk , a man who knows how to geta lot of public press , even though this will be the Boring Company ’s first rodeo .
“ This is truly a unique and one - of - a - kind project , ” the Las Vegas board ’s vice chairman , Bill Noonan , told theLas Vegas Sun . “ People will come from all over the country to see it . ”
“ This task is buy the farm to be a tangible benefit to our customer , ” Noonan retain . “ But it also has an opportunity because it ’s innovative and leads to a small - cost system , to help solve congestion problems not only in the resort corridor , but throughout the community of interests . ”
Time will tell , Mr. Noonan . And while we ’re not rooting against the Boring Company , it ’s become progressively clear that Elon Musk is much less adept at construct mass transit than he is at electric cars and rockets .
Elon MuskHyperloopLos AngelesSPACEXTESLAThe Boring Companytransportation
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