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Elon Musk Shows Off The Boring Company's LA Tunnel (theverge.com)
Elon Musk is keeping to his promise of opening the Boring Company's proof-of-concept tunnel to the public on December 10th. The two-mile-long Los Angeles tunnel takes 30 seconds to get through via a sped-up video. The Verge reports: Construction on the tunnel began over a year ago, and extends from SpaceX's Hawthorne, California headquarters, to an LA suburb. Since then, the Boring Company has been selected to build tunnels for Chicago and Washington DC, and has sketched out plans to build a larger network of tunnels under LA, with the aim of reducing congestion. The tunnels will theoretically use autonomous, electric skates to move anywhere from 8 to 16 people along the system's rails at speeds anywhere from 124 mph to 155mph.
So, it's only of use if you want to go to SpaceX.
Got it.
Ah the real issue raises it's ugly head.... Tunnels are way too expensive and are even more limited than roads. They only go from point A to B and there is no choice about exiting them in between.
Tunnels are great when everybody wants to get from point A to point B and no place else, like from England to France under water or though a mountain. But in an urban environment, they are kind of useless, especially the high speed kind, because a significant number of folks only want to go part way between A and B, and the tunnel is worthless for them..
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It's almost as if they have style guides that tell them to use units that their audiences will understand! OMG that's so weird!
That's not a problem. They just should have used 125 - 150 mph. We're dealing with a rough estimate here, throwing in numbers like 124 suggests a precision that doesn't exist in the source.
Thanks for confirming my suspicion. This is just a basic tunnel, nothing special or interesting, doesn't demonstrate anything new or innovative. All they did was prove they can dig a medium length tunnel, which isn't exactly news.
I get the walk before you can run thing, but why is this news, why is Musk tweeting triumphantly that he built a bog standard tunnel that's not even state of the art, and why are they bothering to let people ride through it? I think most people have seen a tunnel before, maybe even had their car driven through one on a sled.
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Thanks for confirming my suspicion. This is just a basic tunnel, nothing special or interesting, doesn't demonstrate anything new or innovative.
It depends on the cost to dig it. It might be innovative it was cheaper than would otherwise be expected, by a significant margin.
Ah the real issue raises it's ugly head.... Tunnels are great when everybody wants to get from point A to point B and no place else, . But in an urban environment, they are kind of useless ....
That explains why tunelling urban metros like the London Underground railway are always empty.
We also knew it was possible to make rockets. The concept isn't new. He just thinks he can make a better version.
But in an urban environment, they are kind of useless
Are you serious? Urban environment are filled with tunnels. From subways to bypasses to getting to the other side of a river, to anything that needs to from A to B with lots of houses in between, or specifically needs to be underneath those houses (sewers maybe?). Tunnels are primarily useful in urban environments because there's a shortage of space there.
I don't know how good or cheap the Boring Company's tunnels are, but cheaper tunnels would be incredibly useful. (I'm less convinced about Musk's vision of underground cars on moving platforms, but who knows how that works out.)