The Las Vegas visitors authority on Tuesday picked Elon Musk's tunnel-making startup "The Boring Company" to build an underground "people mover" as part of a massive convention center expansion.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) board of directors touted its choice as a "monumental decision that will revolutionize Southern Nevada's transportation."
The Boring Company will design, construct and operate a convention center transport system consisting of a loop of express-route tunnels capable of carrying passengers in autonomous electric vehicles at high speeds, according to LVCVA.
Travellers of the Vegas underground are advised to keep an eye out for Deathclaws, Mirelurks, Mole rats, and Feral Ghouls.
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Elon Musk'S Boring Company Finishes Digging Las Vegas Tunnels:
Elon Musk's Boring Company has completed digging a second tunnel underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, marking the end of the first phase of the $52.5 million project to build a "people-mover" system to shuttle visitors from one side of the venue to the other. The first of the two tunnels was finished in February.
Workers will now turn their attention to completing the above-ground passenger stations on either end of the tunnels, as well as a third underground station in the middle of the system. The people-mover, which is being formally called the Convention Center Loop, is still scheduled to open to the public in January 2021 in time for the next Consumer Electronics Show — if CES happens, that is.
[...] The Loop is supposed to be able to move more than 4,000 people per hour through the tunnels in a variety of Tesla vehicles, taking a cross-campus walk that normally takes at least 15 minutes and turning it into a ride that lasts less than two minutes.
[...] The Loop will pack those passengers into Model 3s, Model Xs, and a "tram" built on the Model 3 platform that can fit between 12 and 16 passengers, according to Steve Hill, the CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, who spoke to The Verge this week.
Local leaders cooling to Boring Company tunnel promises
Virginia state transit officials are telling The Boring Company "thanks but no thanks," at least for now. The Virginia Mercury reported yesterday that the state's chief of rail transportation, Michael McLaughlin, was not sufficiently impressed by his recent visit to Elon Musk's test tunnel in California to recommend that the state work with the startup.
"It's a car in a very small tunnel," McLaughlin reportedly told the state's Transportation Board public transit subcommittee this week. "If one day we decide it's feasible, we'll obviously come back to you," he added.
[...] In February, Musk tweeted that the company was working on improving its test tunnel. "Focus right now is getting to high speed, tight follow distance in test tunnel," the CEO tweeted. He said that "Line-Storm," The Boring Company's second-generation boring machine, would start getting updates "in a month or so."
But even as The Boring Company says it's trying to improve on tunneling efficiency and design, Chicago may be looking to take a step back from the express line that Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged to build with the company. The mayor's office announced in June 2018 that it would work with The Boring Company to build a long-awaited express line between O'Hare International Airport and the Windy City's downtown area.
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Company Wins Chicago O'Hare International Airport Transportation Contract
Elon Musk's Boring Bricks
The Boring Company Announces Dec. 10 Debut for First Los Angeles Tunnel
The Boring Company Won't Pursue Los Angeles Tunnel Under 405 Freeway
Elon Musk Startup Picked to Build Las Vegas 'People Mover'
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:14PM (13 children)
Wake me if any of Elon's transportation wet dreams are ever finished, especially the Chicago airport tunnel.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:38PM
All things considered, I'd say this project is more likely to be completed in a reasonable time frame. Just from an outsider's perspective on Vegas.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Sulla on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:39PM (7 children)
Wake me if the Wright brothers ever get their "flight" schemes off the ground
Wake me if Ford's "assembly line" or "paying workers more" schemes ever produce a automobile
Wake me if Ernest Rutherford and his "splitting the atom" scheme produces results
Wake me if Nikola Tesla generates any "electricity"
Wake me if Humphry Davy makes anything from it
FUCK ERM
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 14 2019, @01:33AM (6 children)
Wake me up when you manage to show how drilling tunnels is suddenly a... ummm ... groundbreaking scientific or technological achievement (as opposed to just, you know, literally groundbreaking).
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Thursday March 14 2019, @04:19AM (3 children)
What is so great about Musk is he is the kind of person who would bother to clean, cut, and set the diamond at the side of the trail everyone else has been passing up. By finding a way to turn a profit on old ideas by finding new ways to implement them he is actually doing something to improve society. The way to reduce our carbon footprint is not to start wearing jackboots. You wont get people taking subways and ditching their trucks unless you offer them a better product in return. Musk wanted to drive a luxury electric vehicle and wanted to attempt a fully electric vehicle that was affordable. Like or hate the Tesla, he made it work. Not just vehicles, he is trying to change solar panels so he can sell them to vain people in the suburbs so they turn from something people might want into a fashion statement they must have. He wanted to elevate traffic and the excessive pollution of being stuck on the road longer than needed, so he is trying to find a way to build tunnels for cheaper and do it faster than done before.
Musk is hated because he is doing the right thing, doing the green thing, actually making a difference for the environment, and doing it for profit. Once again, capitalism provides what socialism only dreams. Hearts and minds are better changed with honey than vinegar.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 14 2019, @06:37AM (2 children)
Wake me up when he managed to do it. With "pictures or it didn't happen". 'Cause until now, whatever I saw from The Boring Company was "not-a-flamethrower"s.
Long before Tesla (inc in 2003) and Musk stretching his grubby hand in the pockets of vain upper-middle-class pockets, the Chinese were already doing electric public transport [technologyreview.com] (note the publish time: 2009).
Their first-most contribution to renewables? Driving down the prices of PV panels to under $1/W-installed - I know it, I installed my PV panels in that price range about 8 years ago, in Australia.
You know who is the biggest manufacturer [wikipedia.org] of lithium batteries? /gunther_electric.fortune/">Speaking of innovation [cnn.com] (see the time of the linked: 2009), how does the following sounds to you?
You know what that battery is? The Li Fe PO4 [wikipedia.org] - only 88% energy density of the ones, but they don't catch fire or explode and the charge cycles is humongous.
When it comes to impact on the world, see here at a glance [ft.com] what FT has to say [ft.com].
Are you sure? I don't hate Musk, I'm just calling his bluff (or your misconception).
My point: Musk has done many good things (probably), but "creating electric car", "batteries" and "digging tunnels" are not among them. Stop being blinded by his bling.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 14 2019, @07:22AM
Sorry, the "Speaking of innovation" [cnn.com] link corrected.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Thursday March 14 2019, @03:16PM
Hell, the electric car was invented before the internal combustion engine. Nobody alive is claiming to have invented the electric car. What Musk did, was develop an electric car with a range and power to appeal to affluent Americans and Europeans, and proved that it could be manufactured cheaply enough to have a mass-market appeal. Any of the major major car manufacturers could have done the same thing, and we're seeing them begin to do so, but none were interested in leading that charge.
It's not a major technological innovation, but like Apple, his team put together existing technology in a way that had a lot more "sex appeal" than anything else in the market at the time, and in the process created a new
As for tunneling, it seems Musk claims that the 1.14mile test tunnel cost $10 million to dig, which from what I can find is in fact dramatically cheaper than the norm - for contrast, in this post claiming the primary costs for rail tunnels are stations, etc., they compare to the much cheaper cost of a 3km(1.86mile), ~3.9m diameter water tunnel in New York that cost only $134m per mile https://pedestrianobservations.com/2012/04/20/quick-note-how-much-tunnels-really-cost/ [pedestrianobservations.com]
That's a slightly smaller diameter tunnel, at well over 10x the cost per mile. Now, maybe more than 90% of the cost is installing the waterproof lining, but that seems unlikely.
Now it could be that Musk is lying through his teeth about the cost, but while he's overly optimistic about timelines, and a definite showman, I can't think of any examples of him outright lying about technical and economic accomplishments on that scale.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 14 2019, @06:37PM (1 child)
I can dig a tunnel from New York, under the Atlantic ocean, to London at the cost of $1 per mile in the timespan of 3 days.
Okay, that's not true, but it does demonstrate how incremental improvements in efficiency is a major groundbreaking scientific and technological achievement. After all, at its core, a Intel I5-8500 is fundamentally the same thing as the 8086 CPU from 25 years ago.
If Elan Musk can reduce the cost of drilling by half (as an example), it would be a major achievement which could cause people to fundamentally rethink how civil engineering is done.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 14 2019, @09:01PM
Then, wake me up "If Elan Musk can reduce the cost of drilling by half"
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:58PM (1 child)
Well he did launch a rocket then land it on a ship...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @01:54AM
Fake news, that was footage of Chinese rockets that he stole and edited as his own
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday March 13 2019, @10:05PM
A tunnel system for a 200 acre site does not sound like a big deal to me. No job too small.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday March 13 2019, @10:08PM
Elon Musk blah transportation blah wet dream blah Las Vegas blah blah blah ... I wonder if Heidi Fleiss would want in on this?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday March 13 2019, @10:10PM (8 children)
Vegas you can walk around. I think people would appreciate it more if it was implemented someplace much colder [localfoodtours.com].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday March 13 2019, @10:43PM (7 children)
1. Try to walk the whole Strip both ways, and let's talk about your feet at the end, unless you're a regular hiker.
2. Try to walk in daytime Vegas between May and October, and look fresh afterwards.
3. Fucking traffic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @11:09PM (6 children)
Is riding the monorail cheating? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Monorail [wikipedia.org]
It will take you from end to end, avoids traffic, and is air conditioned.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday March 13 2019, @11:23PM (4 children)
Still wondering why they don't just expand the monorail. I'll have to read more about it.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 14 2019, @01:36AM
They can use the real-estate taken by monorail to build more wedding chapels?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by srobert on Thursday March 14 2019, @06:29PM (2 children)
I live in Vegas. When the monorail was first coming on line here (10-15 years ago?), and county residents thought they had some say over the matter, I had a conversation with the owner of Vegas' largest taxicab company, Milton Schwartz. Milton (now deceased) was then one of Vegas' wealthiest and most influential citizens. I mentioned to him that "the Monorail would be really useful and reduce traffic jams if it were extended to the airport, otherwise it's practically useless." Milton's response was abrupt. "It's not going to the airport." I repeated that it was "really useless unless it did." He merely repeated "It's not going to the airport." He said it as if he had made a decision and was quite confident that no one else had anything else to say about it. I guess that's just how people with billions of dollars think.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday March 14 2019, @09:38PM
I'm thinking it's more along the lines that he and his fellow taxicab company owners had already talked with the political decision makers a while back, indicating that it would pretty much kill off a chunk of tourism-funded income, economy, and (their employees') jobs overnight. I'm surprised they were able to get it to the border of the airport, unless the monorail people talked to the political decision makers as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @01:56PM
Yep. Washington D.C. is the same way. They finally extended the orange line after 50 years of saying they were going to do it, and it STILL doesn't go to Dulles. -facepalm-
Just goes to show you the power of cronyism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @11:55PM
So is the CAT bus, or whatever they call it now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 14 2019, @12:01AM
Starting a new subway tunnel company and outbidding all the incumbents in a mere two years!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 14 2019, @02:00AM (3 children)
The Vegas casinos got together a few years ago, and built a lovely monorail train system that only goes to a few hotels, and stops at the border of the airport (so everyone needs to bus, uber or taxi in).
Not surprisingly, no one uses the train. If it went just a bit farther, to the terminal building, it would be packed daily.. Airport to city center (or the strip in this case) is one of the easiest business cases for any mass transit system (though not necessarily the easiest political case... taxi unions and payola / campaign contributions).
Hopefully Elon's tunnel will at least go somewhere useful this time, the airport would be a great start :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 14 2019, @05:43AM (1 child)
I doubt it will go to the airport. They've had a hard enough time getting the monorail there. The problem is that the tax and mass transit systems start throwing money around and generating all sorts of hubbub whenever something threatens them, as the airport is where they get most of their big dollar business from. Heck, the monorail is privately funded itself by corporations with big bank accounts and they still haven't gotten all the necessary red tape taken care of in that regard.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Thursday March 14 2019, @06:00AM
Parent means Taxi.
And he's exactly right. The Taxi lobby has been blocking common sense mass transit. From the most obvious place, the airport.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday March 14 2019, @09:02AM
Yep. Everybody's on the Strip. It's *jammed*. It's like, oh... there's a monorail over there someplace, but you have to leave the Strip, pay, wait, and get back to the strip. You could have walked down the Strip in the meantime, enjoying the spectacle that is Vegas.
If it's not *right there* on the sidewalk like a NYC subway, it's almost not worth it. NYNY could have a real subway right out front. How cool would that be?
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