Elon Musk’s Other Company Tests Its Tesla Tunnel System in Las Vegas With Real Passengers

Looks like the Las Vegas Strip has some underground competition. Boring Company, Elon Musk’s other idea, is offering free rides through their futuristic, neon-lit tunnel system in Sin City this week before the official launch in June.

The company sent a few dozen Teslas through the twin tunnels it built under the Las Vegas Convention Center. The free rides offered to Las Vegas residents last week were designed to test the traffic capacity of the tunnels prior to rollout.

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In summary, the Las Vegas Convention Center loop includes approximately 2.7 miles of tunnels 9 meters deep. It has a total of three stops: the two stops at either end are above the ground, while the middle stop sits at the bottom.

Frustrated with traffic in LA, Musk founded the Boring Company in 2016 to implement his vision of a fleet of autonomous vehicles that can be easily called via an app and fly through the tunnels at 250 mph. This allows congress visitors to move quickly across the site. In fact, the company claims the loop will eventually turn a 45-minute walk into a two-minute drive.

Videos of the test drives have surfaced on social media, offering the first real glimpse into the literally groundbreaking infrastructure since the tunnels opened to the press in April. It looks like it still needs a little tweaking.

The company has recruited a number of Tesla vehicles for the study, including a handful of Model 3 sedans and a few Model Y and Model X SUVs. Passengers did not appear to be using an app; Instead, they just went to the nearest available Tesla. In one video, a test driver said he had to wait three to five minutes for a car and there definitely seemed to be some traffic jam.

The story goes on

Once on board, passengers were driven back and forth between stations, and most testers made between seven and twelve trips, as reported by The Verge. What they experienced, while still impressive, wasn’t an autonomous fleet moving at high speed. Instead, trained drivers steered the electric vehicles through the tunnels at limited speeds, with most of the clips showing the cars traveling at 40 mph. While this is a far cry from Musk’s endgame, a video appears to show a Tesla reaching 116 mph.

The goal of The Boring Company’s $ 52.5 million project is to transport 4,400 people per hour through the convention center’s ring tunnels. The company has also expressed an interest in building subway loops in several other major cities, including Miami. Of course, there are regulatory hurdles that the company first has to overcome. But if the Vegas trials are any clue, Musk’s dream seems at least one step closer to reality.

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