This is just crazy awesomeness!
The Boring Company could ease L.A.’s traffic problems, especially for one very special commuter.
It’s been nearly a year since Elon Musk proclaimed on Twitter that “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging . . .” Since then, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX has actually starting doing just that. After revealing The Boring Company in February, Musk released an animated video in May showing how the system would work.
Musk has already started the tunnel project. After investing $50,000 of his own money and then raising $300,000 by selling hats with his logo on it, he now has two digging machines that have started the tunnel.
A reporter for the Southern California News Group tweeted out a photo of a truck hauling a giant portion of the tunnel that will eventually run through Los Angeles, and offer commuters a speedy way to circumvent what Musk has described as the city’s “soul-destroying” traffic.
Should the tunnel project go according to the entrepreneur’s plan, his trip between Bel Air and SpaceX, which in current traffic conditions easily takes more than an hour, would be shortened to as little as six minutes. His car (like many others) would enter the tunnel via a platform, which would lower it, elevator-style, into the tunnel. The platform, called a “skate,” would then shoot through the tunnel, carrying the car at a speed of 130 mph.