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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.

35 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Elon Musk doesn't have a private plane? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Hawthorne airport (Jack Northrup Field) is right next to SpaceX.

    1. Re:Elon Musk doesn't have a private plane? by demonlapin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Runway is too short for jets there. He could helicopter over, but helicopters are risky ways to get around.

    2. Re:Elon Musk doesn't have a private plane? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Runway is too short for jets there. He could helicopter over, but helicopters are risky ways to get around.

      Yes, it seems 75% of helicopter flights end in disaster.

    3. Re:Elon Musk doesn't have a private plane? by operagost · · Score: 2

      As opposed to boring a tunnel to LAX?

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    4. Re:Elon Musk doesn't have a private plane? by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Funny

      Extend the runway. gotta be cheaper than tunnels to LAX

      You've never actually interacted with the government before, have you?

      --
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    5. Re:Elon Musk doesn't have a private plane? by eliphalet · · Score: 2

      Would make it even more likely that a plane headed for LAX would try to land at Hawthorne, which is southeast of LAX and on almost the same heading -- it's happened before.

    6. Re:Elon Musk doesn't have a private plane? by demonlapin · · Score: 2

      I thought you were joking. I thought, how could you miss the Pacific? But no. Thank goodness they realized the mistake before touching down.

  2. Wrong solution by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Wrong solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      We'll need these tunnels to hide from the AI that controls hunter killer modified SDCs in 2056.

    2. Re:Wrong solution by religionofpeas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The closer a road operates to maximum theoretical capacity, the more dramatic the traffic congestion when something goes slightly wrong.

    3. Re:Wrong solution by religionofpeas · · Score: 5, Funny

      The obvious solution is to dig only under your own property. Any two pieces of property can be connected by digging straight down from both of them until the tunnels intersect.

    4. Re:Wrong solution by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Funny

      On the flip side, tunnels have pretty much the same problem. Accidents outside a tunnel may close one or two lanes, but accidents inside a tunnel tend to lead to full tunnel closures.

      Just tunnel under the accident. It's tunnels all the way down!

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    5. Re:Wrong solution by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 2

      Why is that unfortunate? Gotta prove out the technology on smaller scales before you sink untold $$$ into proper scale projects.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    6. Re:Wrong solution by rahvin112 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More roads don't fix congestion, they make it worse. California is a good example of this. All more road capacity does is encourage urban sprawl and more traffic, more miles driven and some huge societal costs. There is no easy or good solution to the problem from this point of view.

      You can extract more capacity out of your roadways by increasing the density and speed of vehicles, but to do that you need computers in charge of cars that can drive at 90mph while 6 inches or less from the bumpers in front and behind that communicate with each other and essentially act as a mass transit system. This is a future we will likely see.

    7. Re:Wrong solution by RubberDogBone · · Score: 2

      The solution is easy but so radical, nobody would ever do it: stop making workplaces so far from places where people live. The problem is, jobs are rarely where the people want live. So we need to look at what IS a job and what IS where someone lives and find ways blend them in a way that affects neither work life nor home life.

      Allowing remote working solves the issue immediately but it's not compatible with many workplaces.
      Breaking up huge offices into multiple smaller ones spread around shows promise. Yet companies like Yahoo have done the opposite, as well as forbidding remote working. I am not sure being that way has helped Yahoo at all.

      --
      Sig for hire.
  3. Hyper tunnels. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    First we build a tunnel... then we suck all the air out... then we move people around through a series of tubes.

    1. Re:Hyper tunnels. by bobbied · · Score: 3, Funny

      First we build a tunnel... then we suck all the air out... then we move people around through a series of tubes.

      What could go wrong? (gasp)

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Hyper tunnels. by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What could go wrong? (gasp)

      First we build a thin aluminum can. Then we fly it 10000 meters up where there's no air to breathe and if you stop, you drop. It's not hard to make flying sound like a death trap.

      I imagine if Musk is thinking it he's thinking underground Hyperloop, you have a tube and on the outside you have air supply. Emergency escape routes. Brakes that automatically engage when they lose power. Emergency overrun to physically bring it to a halt. Bad things could still happen of course, but -5g for 5s and you've gone from 900 km/h to zero in 640 meters. It would be like a nasty roller coaster but really the killer is impact. Hit something really hard (no, even at 900km/h air is not really hard) to stop in fractions of a seconds and you're in deep shit.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  4. Re:I can has tunnels? by tepples · · Score: 2

    That or he'd end up making an N-scale model of his big dig to present to investors.

  5. Re:He seems to be completely bananas... by Notabadguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  6. Musk == The Underminer by Tulsa_Time · · Score: 2

    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
  7. Re:Probably not LAX by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "LAX is an airport he likely frequents with dizzying regularity, given his commitments at SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity"

    Since he flies his own jet, I expect he doesn't fly out of LAX.

    Why not? LAX services business jets as well - they usually have a separate entrance and separate terminal building too.

    He doesn't fly commercial jets like most people going to LAX, but he certainly would use the private jet terminal. And yes, they have standard security as well, but since fewer people use the terminal, there's no lineup and they usually will be able to go from the car to the jet in about 5 minutes.

  8. Re:Utter nonsense. by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 2

    SpaceX is at a railroad right-of-way... you could tunnel under and likely be within the railroad's land rights.

  9. OSI model or tasty dip? you decide. by Thud457 · · Score: 2

    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

  10. please by SlashDread · · Score: 4, Interesting

    please PLEASE run for president next time.

    1. Re:please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      please PLEASE run for president next time.

      He can't (at least not US President). Elon Musk was born in South Africa to parents from South Africa and Canada.

      In order to be US President, you have to be a "natural born Citizen" of the US. What exactly that means is a bit unclear on some edge cases, but at the very least it means that you have to be eligible for US citizenship at birth - either through being born on US soil, or being born to US citizen parents. Being born in a foreign country to foreign parents doesn't cut it, even if you get US citizenship later.

  11. Re:Probably not LAX by Zak3056 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And yes, they have standard security as well, but since fewer people use the terminal, there's no lineup and they usually will be able to go from the car to the jet in about 5 minutes.

    Not familiar with the GA terminal at LAX, but I'd be stunned if they had "standard security" as most have what you would call "no security." I remember one FBO that had a keypad lock on the gate to the barbed wire topped chain link fence, and a sign above the keypad that had the code neatly engraved upon it (and yes, this is post 9/11--that's why the fence had barbed wire and a lock).

    The simple truth is that the feds cannot and do not dictate what you bring on board on your own personal airplane. I once wore a glock on my belt while piloting a C172 just for the sheer novelty of doing so, and did not break any laws by so doing.

    --
    What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
  12. Re:He seems to be completely bananas... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2

    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...

  13. Re:He seems to be completely bananas... by Quirkz · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean Trump *isn't* the balrog?

  14. This fits the long term goal by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  15. Re:Probably not LAX by rahvin112 · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you wore said glock while over a state that forbids open carry you probably violated the law. Though pretty much impossible to be enforced it still constituted one of your 3 felonies a day.

  16. Re:Probably not LAX by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not familiar with the GA terminal at LAX, but I'd be stunned if they had "standard security" as most have what you would call "no security." I remember one FBO that had a keypad lock on the gate to the barbed wire topped chain link fence, and a sign above the keypad that had the code neatly engraved upon it (and yes, this is post 9/11--that's why the fence had barbed wire and a lock).

    The simple truth is that the feds cannot and do not dictate what you bring on board on your own personal airplane. I once wore a glock on my belt while piloting a C172 just for the sheer novelty of doing so, and did not break any laws by so doing.

    This is true for most GA airports. But LAX also services commercial airplanes, so anyone on the air side of the airport will have to have gone through security screening.

    Otherwise it's a Very Big Security Hole at LAX. Because you can always just use the GA terminal to get full access to the airfield and the restricted parts of the airport. (It's all connected to the same runways and all that, and if you're willing to walk a bit, you can end up at the regular terminal as well. Or just take one of the many carts).

    So no, commercial airports will demand their GA terminal have standard security screenings. Regular GA-only airports usually don't have much more than a security door, and most cases the FBO will just have two doors - one from the outside into the FBO, one from the FBO to the field.

  17. Re:He seems to be completely bananas... by haruchai · · Score: 4, Funny

    You mean Trump *isn't* the balrog?

    No, his hands are much too small

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  18. I wish I could call him the greatest industrialist by scourfish · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  19. Re:He seems to be completely bananas... by gweihir · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
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