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.

Comments

sped up video

[religionofpeas]

The two-mile-long Los Angeles tunnel takes 30 seconds to get through via a sped-up video.

Musk is reported to be working on a version where it only takes 15 seconds, by speeding up the video to ludicrous levels.

200 to 250 km/h

[evanh]

Obviously just round numbers, but US media still can't bring themselves to use the quoted numbers. Instead they leave them out and do their best to convert to specific imperial numbers. Duh!

Re:200 to 250 km/h

[Rei]

1) The curves are at the start and end (accel / decel). The trip will be purely accel and then decel.

2) This is just a 3km test tunnel. I seriously doubt the top speeds will be anywhere near those of Loop.

3) It's not even clear that Loop is going to use rails at all. As of the last discussions, it was still under investigation as to which option would be best.

4) Boring Company's goal isn't to make some sort of uber-sepecial-fancy tunnels. Their goal is to make tunnels cheaply and quickly.

5) The test tunnel's TBM (Godot) is only the first phase of that. They still have two more generations of TBMs to go through (Linestorm, and ultimately Prufrock). Godot is still pretty standard, although they modified the means to remove tailings, switching from diesel to battery-powered locomotives. Linestorm will make tunnels with passing zones so inbound and outbound trains can pass each other, and the TBM will run on battery packs delivered by the inbound locomotives. These two changes will save them from having to lay A) the powerful ventilation systems normally used to clear locomotive exhaust, and
B) the expensive power cables. I'm not sure if Linestorm is going to take the first steps toward automatic continuous casing or whether that's going to wait for Prufrock (same with the hot-swappable chilled cutting discs). Continuous casing and hot-swappable discs would on their own double tunneling speeds. But ultimately their goal is to additionally push cutting head speeds up to several times higher than they are today, since they're nowhere near physical limits.

You walk before you run.

Re: 200 to 250 km/h

[peppepz]

Do you like black coffee?

Re:200 to 250 km/h

[religionofpeas]

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.

Re:200 to 250 km/h

[q_e_t]

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.

Re:Elitst

[Rei]

It's a test tunnel. Most companies wouldn't open a test tunnel to anyone.

You don't just jump into a major commercial project as your first endeavour.

Re:Elitst

[Oswald McWeany]

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..

I'm not an accountant working for the boring company so I have no idea about their finances. However, I can see how building a tunnel in certain urban environments might be cheaper than buying land at elevated downtown prices from existing developers- going through legal processes to force them to sell (which usually involves giving the owner of every building you have to demolish above market value) and then clearing away the rubble and debris and then building the road. If there is need for more roads in a high density urban area, underground might just be cheaper.

I think IF there is a financial case for the type of tunnels he wants: urban areas are much more likely to work than rural areas. In fact, it is only in urban areas that it makes any sense at all.

Now, as for whether his plans will work, I couldn't tell you. I know he envisions a whole network of tunnels spidering all throughout the land below cities going more than just one or too places. I couldn't guess if this will work financially or not, or whether cities will pay him. Chances are- he signs a contract to make the tunnels at a price that works for him- and then the cities foot the bill for maintaining those underground tunnels for eternity after that. He will be protected from the maintenance costs and get his pay cheque and leave happy.

I suspect the cost to build the tunnels may be cheaper than ploughing through high rises and commercial districts in some places... but I'm sure they won't be cheap to maintain.

Re:Elitst

[nukenerd]

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.

Re:Elitst

[religionofpeas]

We also knew it was possible to make rockets. The concept isn't new. He just thinks he can make a better version.

Re:Elitst

[mcvos]

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.)

Re:Elitst

[taiwanjohn]

Musk talked about this project in an interview last week. He talks about how surprisingly little innovation has occurred in tunneling technology lately. Everything is still running on diesel power, requiring massive infrastructure to feed fresh air to the operation. In early talks with experts, he asked if they were limited by power or by heat, and they didn't have an answer.

So that's a big part of the reason why he started the Boring Company in the first place. He not only had the selfish motivation to alleviate his own commuting woes, he also found an industry ripe for disruption. Just switching from diesel to electric (an area in which he has some expertise) they can greatly reduce the cost, and that's just the first step in a longer plan.