Elon Musk’s Los Angeles Boring Company tunnel, which was linked to his ambitious Hyperloop project, is now just a normal small tunnel as according to Musk, “this is simple and just works.”
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project started out with great ambitions, like most of the Tesla CEO’s ventures — and like many of his other ventures over time the cracks in the project began to show. Jalopnik reports that The Boring Company’s Los Angeles tunnel, which was unveiled in 2018 in an odd demonstration featuring Tesla vehicles driving down a bumpy concrete path inside the tunnel, will no longer be operating as previously described.
The Boring Company’s tunnel was previously linked to the Hyperloop project which would include proprietary vehicles of varying capacities mounted on electrified skates for frictionless movement, traveling at high speeds through a tunnel network. When the tunnel was unveiled with a riveting demonstration of a Tesla Model X driving 50 mph down a bumpy tunnel, Musk stated: “That bumpiness will definitely not be there down the road — it will be smooth as glass.”
The tunnel does now appear to be smoother, with a car in a recent demonstration traveling down the tunnel at 127 mph. This was not achieved, however, with some miraculous new technology; they just paved the road in the tunnel. So over the course of six months since the first demonstration of the tunnel, the plan for the system has gone from a futuristic transport system to a simple, small tunnel which can accommodate a single vehicle.
The Boring Company’s recent test video showed a Tesla vehicle on the road and a Tesla vehicle in the tunnel racing to the same destination. Unsurprisingly, the vehicle in the tunnel, which does not have to contend with things such as traffic lights, stop signs, other drivers, and the general rules of the road, made it to the destination first. It appears that The Boring Company is no longer interested in adding the sled system to the test track despite receiving a $46.8 million contract with Las Vegas to build a small transportation system, but it has been noted that this contract is for the simple construction of a tunnel which will allow regular cars to travel through it.
When Musk was asked why The Boring Company abandoned the idea of sleds in their tunnels, Musk replied: “This is simple and just works.”
This is simple and just works
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2019
As Jalopnik states: “To recap: Musk’s company spent two years developing a very narrow car tunnel. To anyone who ever believed Elon Musk’s bullshit: you’ve been had.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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