Elon Musk’s Boring Machine Brings Excitement to Los Angeles

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Samuel Chi
Los Angeles, CA

Inventor Elon Musk is into driverless cars and space missions to Mars, but now he’s excited about his boring machine.

Make that the Boring Machine, monikered Godot, a reference to a mysterious character that never appears in a Samuel Beckett play called “Waiting for Godot.”

Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, announced last week that his new venture is ready for its first project. The Boring Company will be creating a network of underground tunnels connecting Los Angeles International Airport and L.A.’s westside neighborhoods:

“First tunnel for The Boring Company begins … Full length of first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman Oaks. Future tunnels will cover all of greater LA,” Musk wrote in his Instagram account.

After completion, cars may be loaded onto a 125-mph “electric sled,” which would allow a vehicle to be transported from “Westwood to LAX in 5 minutes,” according to Musk.

To those unfamiliar with Los Angeles, the most congested city in the U.S. (according to Forbes), a typical drive between LAX and Westwood takes about 30 minutes. It’s not unusual to take an hour or more to traverse those 10 miles on the 405 Freeway during heavy traffic hours.

Musk posted a video of a test run on the sled inside the nearly mile-long experimental Hyperloop vacuum-sealed tunnel he had built outside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, just south of LAX:

There is no word yet on when the project will officially start or be completed. But for Angelenos perpetually stuck in traffic, this could be the best news until flying cars come along. (Then again, if you have to wait a long time in line to get on the sled… but we’re way ahead of ourselves now.)

Follow Samuel Chi on Twitter @ThePlayoffGuru.

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