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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.
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.
Two months to get local government permission to do this, with no public inquiry, no protesting, no legal battles...? Yeah, I don't think this is going to happen - its a joke, nothing more.
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.
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.
You misunderstand.
If he digs deeply enough, government won't know about it. Unless he delves too deeply and awaken a Balrog. Then he can blame it on Trump.
Musk has gone full supervillain.
that tunneling through earthquake zones is never cheap nor easy.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Musk?? Trump? All of the above? I get confused so easily.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Dam. I thought it was the pesky ruskies. Judging by how frequently they come up on slashdot.
Hey, How about changing Slashdot's name to SickleHammer?
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
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
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.
Clearly a mandate like that would be more likely to result in all drivers being carless than all cars being driverless.
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.
He doesn't have enough money for this, trust me...He's joking..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
He should only just dig enough to make it look convincing then seal the open end after they've started down it.
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.
You misunderstand.
If he digs deeply enough, government won't know about it. Unless he delves too deeply and awaken a Balrog. Then he can blame it on Trump.
Just dig a trench, put in a rocket on it side and light the touch paper. It'll ram it's way through the ground in make a tunnel to LAX in a couple of minutes.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
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?
With all the triumph of tyranny I've been watching since the 20th, this really made my day. Thanks.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Talk about the wrong solution. This is Elon Musk we are talking about here. If he has problems getting to and from LAX, then the solution is to NOT go to LAX. Surely purchasing his own private Jet and flying from a more local airfield is an order of magnitude cheaper than digging a tunnel.
Look at the timing. We're close to the end of the month. A recent post said in about a month. That's mighty close to April 1st....
He SHALL pass. Period.
Can people and companies just start digging under towns, businesses, houses, government buildings, airports, etc.? Is there any law preventing people from tunneling under the United States?
Did you miss one of the *two* months between the end of January and the start of April? Namely February *and* March...?
Not as close as you think...
You mean Trump *isn't* the balrog?
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Tunnels in an earthquake zone! Brilliant!
I can't help but notice that this comes out on the same day (nearly the same moment, in fact) as Trump's "yes I'm serious about the wall" EO (executive order). Even followed up by "we'll begin building the wall within two months." (Musk stated that [they] "Plan to start digging in a month or so") If it is some kind of commentary/joke, I'm not sure I get it... but hey what do I know?
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
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 figure either he's fracking with our heads or, he's got a stealth company/project, e.g. hyperloop, that he getting to take the wraps off of and he's teasing with hints. The guy is just enough "bananas" to never truly know.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Maybe Lord Kinbote would rescue him.
I was talking about Sanders, not the guy that builds spaceships as a hobby.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
You mean Trump *isn't* the balrog?
No, his hands are much too small
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
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.
Well, he has to do something with all those recovered boosters he has lying around now.
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.
What do you think the actual tunnel will be made of? The used car batteries will be powering the LEDs inside.
Trump is not bananas. Trump is a reasonably intelligent, uncultivated narcissist. In fact, Trump is basically a text-book example of Narcissistic personality disorder. If he hadn't inherited big, he would probably be the prototypical dishonest used-car salesman. But he is not bananas. He just says whatever he needs to tell people in order to get them to do what he wants. I very much think he does know that he is mostly lying, but because he is the great leader, that is acceptable because his vision is so superior to all others that the end justifies the means.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Not at all. Somebody with money can do a lot of damage when losing contact with reality. Somebody broke will only load the social system to a small degree.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
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.
I missed that Musk's name was in the list (I was referring in my statement to the three names in parenthesis, and the fact that I had included him did not register). I will, of course, report to the nearest suicide booth immediately to rectify my grievous error.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
You could be onto something there.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Building both tunnels and bridges are pretty stable industries. In tunnels, you're limited by having to get the spoil from the workface, past your boring equipment, to the entrance of the tunnel. In bridges, you've got to lift the components into position ; both limit the rate at which you can move stuff.
I deduce the Musk is making a joke of some sort, or is not actually investing any serious consideration into the "HYPErloop" project. Or both.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
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.
Is there a Balrog in the woodpile?
It's tunnels, all the way down.
I ambiguously stated something as a result of not paying enough attention to what I copy/pasted. If that's not accepting that the failing was mine, the problem is with you, and not me. I certainly don't owe some random person on the internet an apology for my poor word choice.
Oh, and by the way: neither progressive nor a lefty, nor do I support Sanders (I thought I made it clear that I wasn't a fan of his politics). Since you're being so damned pedantic, I figured you'd be on my side of this particular argument (suggesting that Sanders is jetting away to his "various mansions" is absurd on its face, and that's the ONLY thing I took issue with). Again, if you've got a problem here, try taking a look in the mirror.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
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.
Are you asserting that Trump's orange skin is actually an inner fire, glowing out from behind fleshy curtains?
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.