The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s company that designs and builds infrastructures for “green” underground mobility, got the go-ahead from the Las Vegas administration to build a network of tunnels under the city, where cars can pass zero emission (typically Tesla).
The tunnel network, according to the project presented by Boring Company, will be more than 46 kilometers long, with 51 “stations” to bring passengers back to the surface, and will be able to transport, according to Clark County officials who have approved the project, about 57 thousand people per hour. Officials also specified that the construction costs of the facility will not weigh on local taxes.
Pilot project already operational
A Boring Company pilot project is already operating in Las Vegas: a short tunnel of about one kilometer that was inaugurated just this year. Once the project is complete, the Boring Company network will connect the hotel and casino area, the Las Vegas Convention Center, the American football stadium and McCarran International Airport. The construction costs will be borne by Boring Company, which will ask for a loan from hotels and other companies that want to have a station available.
Times and costs
Boring Company takes advantage of a favorable contingency: until now public transportation in Las Vegas was covered exclusively, by contract, by a company that operated a monorail network, the Las Vegas Monorail. But the company went bankrupt last year, thus leaving room for Musk’s company project. The costs and transport have been estimated by the Boring Company itself: a trip from the airport to the Convention Center, about 8 km, should take about 5 minutes and cost about ten dollars, while the journey of 5 and a half kilometers between the Convention center and the stadium should last about 4 minutes and cost $ 6.
For now, no autonomous driving
When the project is completed – the ninth times have yet been declared – the Teslas that will travel the tunnel network will not use autonomous driving, but will have to be piloted by a driver. But the medium-term goal will be to fully automate the service. Similar projects were also presented by The Boring Company for the US cities of Chicago and Los Angeles, but for now they are stopped.