Slashdot Mirror
Elon Musk Says He'll Start Digging a Tunnel From SpaceX HQ Next Month (techcrunch.com)
It appears Elon Musk is really serious about digging a tunnel to fix the traffic jams on roads. Last month, the SpaceX CEO sent out a string of tweets complaining about traffic. He suggested that a possible solution might be to start a tunnel-digging firm called -- wait for it -- The Boring Company, following it up by saying "I am actually going to do this," and updating his bio to read: "Tesla, SpaceX, Tunnels & OpenAI." This morning, he repeated the claim, and even assured a questioner that he was, in fact, serious. From a report on TechCrunch: Musk's tunnel plans, then, seem possibly aimed at reducing his travel time between SpaceX and LAX, at least initially. LAX is an airport he likely frequents with dizzying regularity, given his commitments at SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity. [...] It's hard to gauge Musk's seriousness on Twitter, given his ability to come with fairly dry and playful responses. But he has insisted the tunnel plans were serious previously, and so far, nothing to indicate he's just joking has emerged. Here, too, he responded to a query from a fan wondering if he was serious with a simple "Yup," and he does include "Tunnels" as a list item of his concerns in his Twitter biography.
The Hawthorne airport (Jack Northrup Field) is right next to SpaceX.
make it stop
Like those in a tunnel would be any better.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
Loss of contact with reality and too much money. A bad combination.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
He is trying to build a better buggy whip. The solution to traffic congestion is not more infrastructure capacity, but using the capacity we have more efficiently. Automatic braking, lane control and (eventually) SDCs, should be able to increase road capacity by a factor of 2 to 5. As the CEO of Tesla, he should focus on that. By the time the tunnel is built, it will no longer be needed.
Now instead of Double layer highways, we can have double layer roads! top goes south/west tunnel goes north/east
Since he flies his own jet, I expect he doesn't fly out of LAX.
Of course Musk isn't going to start digging tunnels next month. I can scarcely begin to imagine how much work it involves to get permission, permits, acquire land, and the million-and-one other things you have to do before even breaking the sod.
What's gone wrong with this website? Someone please fix it.
https://image.slidesharecdn.com/lessonslearnedvalidating60000pagesofapidocumentation-140527163002-phpapp01/95/lessons-learned-validating-60000-pages-of-api-documentation-3-638.jpg?cb=1401208305
Unless we're having a conversation about tech billionaires going crazy because reporters are jumping over themselves to pat them on the back.
Someone needs to give Elon a nice train set, with lots of tunnels, so he'll settle down.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
First we build a tunnel... then we suck all the air out... then we move people around through a series of tubes.
Can we skip the tunnels for cars and go straight to pneumatic tubes al a Jetsons?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhxsD5uA7vs
Ask Seattle how their tunnel is coming along.
Elon, a man with too much money. A fool is easily parted with his money.
Musk is yet another "do as I say not as I do" elitist. Elon Musk claims global warming is a problem, yet contributes more pollution by himself than a small city. Personal flights, multiple multi-million dollar HVAC controlled mansions, luxury Hotel stays, and now he wants his own personal travel system underground so he does not have to tolerate the peons on the Freeway. Don't think that _YOU_ will ever see the inside of any of his personal tunnel systems you piss ants!
While the rest of us are told we need to have controlled Freeways so that we can't commute without the nanny state telling us we can, Musk and his ilk (Gore, Clinton, and yes even Sanders) fly around to their various mansions instead of doing what they tell us we have to do. Teleconference and be "Green".
Yes, I'm tired of the hypocrisy from these elitist egomaniac control freaks.
He will call it the 'iTunnel' and get the Apple fanboys to pre-order seats
Musk has gone full supervillain.
In a place that experiences earthquakes daily, drilling tunnels under the city sounds like a really bad idea.
that tunneling through earthquake zones is never cheap nor easy.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
There are far more cost effective ways to address traffic. The best solution is clearly to mandate that all cars be driverless by a set year and then come up with a standardised system so that cars can communicate to optimise traffic flow.
This could be done for a tiny fraction of the cost of building tunnels, in substantially less time and with considerably less environmental impact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Remember the villain from The Incredibles ?
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
He and I just had lunch yesterday. He is joking, but remains mildly annoyed with his commute length. Self driving cars are another solution he has proposed to ease traffic congestion.
Digging tunnels to help alleviate traffic congestion seems pretty unrealistic; the logistics of getting permission and avoiding any existing underground infrastructure seems like it would be a nightmare.
On the other hand, being able to efficiently dig tunnels seems like something that would be vital to building a colony on Mars...
Is not building roads/bridges/tunnels something, only a government can do? Crazy Libertarians may disagree, but we know, they are wacko...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
In order to save on costs and provide almost instant travel, Musk plans to build his infrastructure using quantum tunnelling.
He's building the private tunnel that members of the Stonecutters get to use. It has fancy art to look at and classical music playing throughout.
nt
He's hiring a battalion of groundhogs with lasers on their heads (the sharks were already engaged).
He's been inhaling too much.
Hawthorne airfield is 1511 meters.
His Gulfstream G650 requires about 2000 meters in full load to take off, but can land in less than one km.
Dassault Falcon 7X needs 1750 meters to take off in full load, and can land in less than one km.
So Hawthorne airfield is not enough for G650, but Dassault Falcon 7X with tanks filled only to half could propably takeoff from Hawthorne,
and could still fly to anywhere in North America, only when flying to other continents it would have to be refuelled.
Do you want Morlocks? Because that's how you get Morlocks.
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
FUCK IT, we're going straight to seven layers!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
please PLEASE run for president next time.
Though they ain't cheap but I think Elon can buy one, or lease. I'm sure these are relatively safe as police and media regularly fly these things around the LA area. I haven't RTFA (who does?). This reminds me an article from Flying magazine in 1970s, "Fastest Way Around Town on the Slowest Thing Flying" about an air service using a Bell 47J (a variation of the famous "MASH" bubble helicopter) that has three passenger seats behind the pilot. This ferrys people between LAX to other spots around the area. Not sure if this is in place anymore, maybe they done away with things like this. i.e. back in the days Boeing Vertol flying to and from the Pan Am building in NYC. I haven't read comic books lately but what does Tony Stark use when not as Ironman to get around town?
mfwright@batnet.com
, Musk and his ilk (Gore, Clinton, and yes even Sanders) fly around to their various mansions instead of doing what they tell us we have to do.
The above is entirely unfair. His net worth is something like half a million bucks
Without a reference for the pronoun, the word "he" will refer to the subject of the previous sentence.
Musk's net worth is half a million bucks?
Jeez, simple solution. Just move the company to someplace away from all the traffic.
With all the triumph of tyranny I've been watching since the 20th, this really made my day. Thanks.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Talk about the wrong solution. This is Elon Musk we are talking about here. If he has problems getting to and from LAX, then the solution is to NOT go to LAX. Surely purchasing his own private Jet and flying from a more local airfield is an order of magnitude cheaper than digging a tunnel.
Electric vehicles have no issues in tunnels. Due to the level of pollutants emitted, ICE powered vehicles, not so much.
Can people and companies just start digging under towns, businesses, houses, government buildings, airports, etc.? Is there any law preventing people from tunneling under the United States?
Tunnels in an earthquake zone! Brilliant!
I can't help but notice that this comes out on the same day (nearly the same moment, in fact) as Trump's "yes I'm serious about the wall" EO (executive order). Even followed up by "we'll begin building the wall within two months." (Musk stated that [they] "Plan to start digging in a month or so") If it is some kind of commentary/joke, I'm not sure I get it... but hey what do I know?
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
Nothing like ignoring obvious and easy to find backs to create an invalid opinion. From his Wiki entry:
As of June 2016, he has an estimated net worth of US$11.5 billion, making him the 83rd wealthiest person in the world.
My hope is that you apologize for the mistake and make yourself a better person by learning to perform basic research for facts before forming invalid opinions. I have little hope with most people, and assume it you will somehow attempt to paint your mistake into a "facts don't matter" issue.
Consider this in light of Mr. Musk's long term goal: Permanent human colonization of Mars.
The high cosmic radiation on Mars means that Habitats are very likely to be underground. Today, no-one makes a tunnel boring machine that will fit on a rocket: Boring Inc.
The lack of fossil fuels means you need a big power source: SolarCity and the battery Gigafactory
Last but not least, you need a way to get there: SpaceX
He's building the infrastructure to make his goal a reality.
I'm sure the tunnel will be announced as complete on April 1st.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmEtR17A6ck&t=61
Homer Simpson predicts Elon.
and go pedal your fat arse around instead of bitching about traffic, that's the way they do it at the European space agency, in the Neederlands
But, to be honest, beyond colonizing mars, building electric cars, a solar future, and high-speed, vaccuum tunnels, he is missing the one important part of being a motivated industrialist: storing his urine in jars. I mean, the Spruce Goose flew for sure, but let's face it, Howard Hughes wasn't legendary until he started bottling his urine.
A tunnel beneath LA would help the people who will be killed by a Falcon-9-Heavy as it careens out of control to destruction on an LA suburb. However, the people taking cover inside the tunnel will be incinerated by the back-splash of the flames from the destruction.
Or a Personal Hyper Tube, which don't even have brakes. Near the end, the PHT enters a water tunnel to absorb the bulk of the kinetic energy.
But, to be honest, beyond colonizing mars, building electric cars, a solar future, and high-speed, vaccuum tunnels, he is missing the one important part of being a motivated industrialist: storing his urine in jars. I mean, the Spruce Goose flew for sure, but let's face it, Howard Hughes wasn't legendary until he started bottling his urine.
Colonizing mars - Not happening in his lifetime. Building electric cars - With other peoples money. A solar future - debatable (see Building electric cars) High Speed vacuum tunnels - Hardly. Legendary for what ?
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
Or at least take the blame for them for the next 50 years...
Concentrate on what you're good at, getting us into space cheaply.
When you get to Mars, you can run for president of Mars.
A tunnel between SpaceX and LAX would be 9.5 km beneath dense urban areas. I wonder how many authorization one would need before starting the thing.
https://goo.gl/maps/rUxsDMDqMWv
I know traffic on the 105 sucks, but 6.2mi?
The point was that Must was a hypocrite, which you admit is correct. Then you claim his personal contribution is still small so should not count and that he does not need to try to set an example. Anyone, and yes that is ANYONE, can now claim the same right?. Meaning, who gives a shit about Climate and Pollution.
If not: Unfortunately the Aristotelian "I'm smarter than you so you owe me stuff" mentality never leads to progress. The Serfs may tolerate the Holier than Though Nobles but really do not hold their opinions with any regard and ignore those Noble's calls for rally.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
of the Gibraltar airport and it's runway.
It's tunnels, all the way down.
Well good going Elon! I have made one simple request of you. I asked you to get me some frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads! And what do you do? Dig a tunnel! How does that get me my frickin' sharks with laser beams?
Now put down the frickin' TBM and get me my frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams!
Why not build a short hyperloop run instead? Give it a few stations near parking areas, have it run through/near the SpaceX headquarters. True you're not going to get the real usefulness out of it as it is such a short run but you could at least get some real world experience with running such a system. It would also probably be much cheaper than
Legendary for what ?
Financing plus detailed hands-on management of the company that has landed the first stage of an orbital rocket intact. Repeatedly. Even if nothing else he ever does pans out, that was a truly spectacular and historical first, and his name will go into history books a few paragraphs away from Goddard for doing it.
Why not just focus on Quantum teleportation?!
That would solve both the SpaceX and the Tunnel thing!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
I am not a hypocrite telling people to behave one way while I act another. When I am, you can ask "what have YOU done?" and criticize me accordingly. Do try and focus on the topic instead of running around the playground.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.