Why Elon Musk’s Boring Company Isn’t Fixing Traffic Anytime Soon

In 2017, Elon Musk launched The Boring Company with the goal of solving ‘soul destroying’ traffic. Four years later, The Boring Company opened its first underground tunnel loop to the public in Las Vegas. But it’s also had a number of planned projects that seem to have stalled. It may still be too early to determine if The Boring Company will eventually disrupt transportation, but for now, experts say, it needs to get used to all the red tape.
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Why Elon Musk’s Boring Company Isn’t Fixing Traffic Anytime Soon

[@alexismiller288]

Americans will literally do anything to avoid building a train.

[@Vandicoup]

My city in Texas has had modern day trains and railroad systems for several years and they're now working on implementing a Bullet Train into the mix in the next few years to come. There are trains and railway systems all over the U.S., hell we were one of the first early adopters of the railroad and made a huge push for it during the "First Transcontinental Railroad " days, side note: watch Hell on Wheels -- it's a fantastic show that covers quite a bit of our prolific history in the railroads, but anyways, the problem is that there isn't enough of it throughout our country and a lot of the railways and trains themselves are outdated.

[@Pepe-dq2ib]

Americans like to own their things. Just one of many reason why they prefer cars and Tesla doesn't let you own the cars you buy either.

[@Pepe-dq2ib]

@@adeel8478 and seeing how New York is with all the random attacks and violence. People are even less likely to use a mass transportation with no security. They are somehow hopeful defunding police will help, because they assume the police are doing the violence.

[@a.m.doesit9347]

because most states are bigger than most countries... its easy to build a train when a whole country is only 500 miles long

[@a.m.doesit9347]

@@adeel8478 have you been watching not just bikes?

[@AlperenGenc]

Musk has managed to combine the high public transportation infrastructure costs with the low carrying capacity of private cars. A lose-lose situation.

[@farenhite4329]

I mean, it feeds his cult of personality so it is a win for him.

[@waffles6280]

@@farenhite4329 And he's also getting paid

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

​@@whitneygoncalves3327 Then don't complain about the poor getting all the government funding THEY can get (foodstamps, welfare, etc). In fact, ideally, government SHOULD be forced, physically, to pay all childfree persons who were forced into this world, without their prior consent, equally, and force the breeders to pay for it.

[@timoteubert7068]

LOL lose-lose situation

[@SetTheCurve]

Reminds me of the highly popular fast track lanes you see in around California.

[@thienphucn1]

The idea sounds amazing. Now imagine if we make the car bigger so that more people can travel inside them. Also, have all cars being attached to each other and run on some sort of platforms like a rail or something... wait a minute

[@archiedentone5950]

We have a name for it The hyper choo choo

[@pigeonmaster1361]

They are not being designed to be like trains

[@thienphucn1]

@@pigeonmaster1361 yeah because the Vegas loop is objective inferior to trains

[@pigeonmaster1361]

@@thienphucn1 it is currently very inferior to trains but it’s objective isn’t.

[@hjj9269]

@@pigeonmaster1361 When talking in efficiency, it is an objectively worse idea.

[@MilenPetkovPetkov]

Americans, please, visit ANY other developed country and learn from them. TRAINS have been in use on, under, and above ground to solve traffic congestion for about 140 years now - from London, Istanbul, and Paris to Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Honestly, this level of thinking is reminiscent of the movie Idiocracy!

[@Tre16]

You guys just can't wrap your head around the size of the USA. Europe is tiny compared to it. Same with Canada.

[@msgbt3793]

@@Tre16 Google says, Europe has a size of 10.2 mil. km2, whereas the US only has a size of 9.8 mil. km2. So yeah Europe really is small compared to US.

[@cesruhf2605]

@@val4414 We BIG so it is different for us

[@ThreepwoodFan]

Trains just make no sense. The boring tunnel is the best idea, there just have to be other vehicles with space for multiple passengers, then it would work.

[@abcdefghijk6752]

@@cesruhf2605 Europeans vastly underestimate the size and ecological/ terrain diversity of the U.S until they come here lol. Texas border-to-border is twice the distance as Frankfurt to London. I want to see more high speed rails, too, but a lot of it is going to be difficult to build. We don’t have a lot of flat ground state to state. In between we have a lot of mountain ranges, preserved national parks, rivers, canyons. Even all that proved to be difficult to work with just building our highways. But I’m excited because a few rail projects have been popping up on the East and west coast. I think the US will seek city-to-city high speed rail than state to state. I think for crossing states, air travel is always going to be more favorable.

[@alterego157]

Wait til Elon figures out he can connect several pods together and use only one engine to pull them all 😂

[@mayurbhor2231]

🤣🤣

[@mangoman5591]

Best comment🤟🤟🤟

[@ericd9853]

You just described a train..

[@havesomerubicon6097]

@@ericd9853 r/wooosh

[@AllThisThingsIHateU]

@@ericd9853 Yeah but you are in your own car, in which you can drive anywhere you want after the tunnel. Your mind must be in a closed loop.

[@leveraged6694]

There are these amazing things now called trains

[@scottblackburn2969]

No not at all like a train. trains are faster lol

[@Presario3440]

You can work or study. Or watch sports while commuting on the train. It would make everyone more productive while avoiding traffick

[@stdesy]

Ok so I have to drive 15 miles to a train station and park there for a few or take a bus 🤮 to get there (which would take an hour) to go on something that has to stop every few minutes to take on and release passengers and pay $15-30 each way just for a trip from the suburbs into the city? No thanks

[@andybutsakone4253]

Government gonna build it for $1billion a mile while the boring tunnel builds it for $10million😂

[@abd-zf2gm]

@@andybutsakone4253 the boring company makes very very very small tunnels with zero safety features, with zero practicality, for $50 millions.☹️

[@aqibejaz7253]

Elon Musk is a genius. Give him another ten years and he may finally figure out how to build a large capacity underground transportation system. Cough, cough, London Underground, year 1863.

[@civilizedhuman7875]

Genius

[@stang46l]

Just like his hyper loop. I’m waiting for space X to attach a shuttle to a rocket. And act like it’s something new.

[@kunalroy9227]

an underground system of trains is completely different to what elon is trying to do here lololo

[@JCasR3]

But why give him 10 years and millions of billions of dollars? It’s already been 4 years and they’re no where closer to starting this… with technology that’s largely already available.

[@tony16991]

@@JCasR3 Because policies are based on the whims of your politicians

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

Imagine promising pods going 150 mph , and coming up with cars driving 20 mph..And then getting away with it !

[@gamers-xh3uc]

well he gave the idea

[@the80386]

benefit of having an online army of idiot stans

[@rubenayla]

He didn't promise that speed for the test track. I think Otherwise they would have made it smooth

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

@@rubenayla Well if you watch the initial pr video that's exactly what he promised. I never bothered looking into Musk, so i was 'neutral 'Then i saw a few videos about this LA project. The promise and the outcome are very, very different. Including the speed. Check it out for yourself.

[@rubenayla]

@Kinguin You guys live in another universe. "delivering nothing" yeah

[@chihchang1139]

high speed mass transport in tunnels and above ground already exist, they're trains

[@StoneCoolds]

I saw a documentary about why the US doesn't have high speed trains, and basically its because all the enviroment prohibitions and burocracy/bribes

[@davidmcmillan4183]

@@StoneCoolds So basically the environmental regulations prevent the most environmentally-friendly forms of transport from being built. Everyone's driving around in cars by themselves instead. God we're a stupid nation.

[@vedants.vispute77]

@@StoneCoolds Even countries like India is building high speed trains.. Elon Musk must understand that we should try to have more energy kinda from asteroids, sun and etc

[@coreytaylor447]

the problem is there are already things in the way of where those trains would go, its called buildings

[@coreytaylor447]

@@davidmcmillan4183 its an imminent impact like say destroying a wetland vs long term impacts like less carbon, Ill let you choose what choice more people care about

[@ArnaudMEURET]

It’s sad to realize how much a cult of personality can silence intelligence.

[@andreasschmidt7215]

I agree... but at this point I wont say that Musk will fail this. Everyone said Tesla and SpaceX would fail. Both industries have extremely high entry costs and all experts said he wouldnt make it. And this is exactly the same. I wonder if he can actually do it again...

[@geet9722]

@@andreasschmidt7215 the difference is that other people had already attempted creating an electric car or creating a spaceship company. Tesla for instance, was simply bought by him and he brought it into greater success. This car tunnel however... is something that no one has done before because it's really fricken dumb by any objective measure.

[@nickepic1863]

@@andreasschmidt7215 Both of that companies are not developed by Musk, he stole them from founders and is not giving dividend, and that means there is no money to give to the shareholders.

[@andreasschmidt7215]

@@geet9722 He bought Tesla so early, that argument doesnt really matter IMO. But I agree, success seems unlikely. But that was the case for Tesla and SpaceX too. The main problem for those industries with high up-front investment costs is just surviving the first 10 years. The hype around Musk helps by attracting investors, they pour money into it until it is actually profitable. And he may not make his promises come true... SpaceX and Tesla both fall short of fulfilling all those expectations. But what matters is profitability, not the "over the top promises" I am not a fan of Elon Musk, I dislike Tesla (of course, as someone from Munich, home of BMW). But you must admit: It is impressive how he enters those industries.

[@andreasschmidt7215]

@@geet9722 I had a seminar with the CEO of BMW two years ago at TU Munich. He said Tesla would be bankrupt in a few years, they wouldnt know the industry, have no idea of scaling production and so on. None of the experts in the industry believed in Tesla. And still, somehow he did it. I am sceptical too, but lets just wait and see.

[@shubham-pawar]

Hey hear me out. How about you put a electric train in the tunnel instead of Tesla's. Pretty revolutionary idea I know.

[@gudrune]

All trains are electric :)

[@myfairlady343]

@@gudrune no? There are trains that run on gas.

[@celestiallegacy4881]

There's a difference between ELECTRIC and BATTERY POWERED. All trains are electric.

[@Pistolita221]

BARBERIC, think of the tire lobby, think of the coal and natural gas lobbies! Oops, I meant electric companies. Totally different entities (US electricity is 60% fossil fuel)

[@BRBallin1]

I think he’s trying to make it so people don’t have to walk in between their point A to train and hop off the train and walk to their point B

[@darthraven5072]

musk is a genius, he combined the inneficiency of cars with the restriction of movement of public transport.

[@MidNiteR32]

I like how CNBC doesn’t point out the Vegas hyper loop is a failure and didn’t deliver on a single promise it claims it was gonna deliver.

[@euphoricmonk]

and what was the promise? It takes people from one point to another, underground.

[@sunnycorax]

@@euphoricmonk It was contracted and only gets paid when it hits certain transportation markers. Those markers are based on number of people transported each hour. It doesn't even make the lowest threshold for the first level of payment. It also promised fully autonomous vehicles. They failed on that promise as well. All of the Teslas in the loop are driven manually by human drivers. Finally they also failed to meet the budget at the price they put in the bid for, going overbudget and billing the convention center for a loop that isn't even completing any of its contractual agreements.

[@SkittyDoogle]

Tesla’s video promised speeds up to 124mph. 50mph isn’t even half that. Video showed cars being put on carts, and the real tunnel just has modified cars with bumpers on the wheels. They basically faked it to make it, and didn’t meet any expectations. Their website scrubbed a lot of their promises too.

[@jlg8689]

@@sunnycorax FSD/Full Autonomous isn’t even available anywhere yet, so why do you already expect them to be driving themselves once a tunnel is completed. Software is still being developed. And why do you care about the financials when none of your personal money went into it. Once software is able to and regulation allows then the vehicles will drive themselves.

[@Wukiee]

@@jlg8689 maybe because TESLA promised it would be fully autonomous?

[@kmsxd2227]

Ah yes, Musks ingenious idea of adding a lane.

[@alanlight7740]

So why didn't anyone else do it?

[@alexismiller288]

@@alanlight7740 Because they knew better.

[@vudangtung5638]

@@alanlight7740 because beside musk fans, everyone knows it doesn't help and is a massive waste of money.

[@alanlight7740]

@@vudangtung5638 - funny. I know one stretch of highway, about 5 miles long, where adding one lane reduced travel time at rush hour from about one hour to about five minutes. Strange that everyone else knows that adding lanes doesn't work, though.

[@grandmastarflash]

@@alanlight7740 exactly! we can just add Lanes and lanes and lanes forever and ever and traffic will be finally be solved. Why don't people get that?

[@MyDuckSaysFucc]

I think it’s hilarious how Elon’s fan boys jump to his defense after every unoriginal/impossible/expensive idea gets made fun of. Did you guys ever consider that these projects were never meant to work in the first place? This is one of the richest guys in the world, I’m certain he has a team of experts to tell him what is possible on this plane of reality and what isn’t. Maybe he is just funneling away funds from transportation projects that actually work, while simultaneously marketing Tesla cars?

[@Enkarashaddam]

"I'm a con man or maybe I'm a god"

[@Cyborg_Lenin]

Americans want cars! And they dont care how much it hurts them!

[@cyberlord64]

The world is filled with hundreds of real life implementations of concepts that would "never work" in the time they were conceived. Every idiot can repeat "bUt a TrAiN...". It's the person that turns an impossibility into reality that makes meaningful changes.

[@Cyborg_Lenin]

@@cyberlord64 Sure. That happens. But this aint it. This idea IS idiotic. Its conceptually non-functional. It can work, shure. But its not solving nny problems ever. It goes completely in the wrong way of progress, digging america deeper into the cancerous car dependent culture. It wont ever solve traffic problems, because the amount of people it can transport is insignificant. Even if they build a massive system underground (wich is expense and ineffective) He would just add more roads, that aint how lowering car density works. It in no way works against any problem it sets out to solve. Elon Musk isnt some uber genius urban planner. He is not a genius engineer. He is a businessman, who makes people invest in his projects, that barely make a difference in practice.

[@baizen1]

Actually being a narcissistic and one of the richest guys in the world impedes him from getting proper experts. Instead he gets surrounded by a bunch of yes-men who tell him "Of course Mr. Musk, we can TOTALLY do this!" but they know they cant. And thats how he gets told that yes, we can do this at 150mph, with amazing individual pods, and instead end up with just a single underground car lane that goes at 50mph when reality hits in. If you've ever seen Silicon Valley, Gavin Belson and Hooli represent this idiocrazy.

[@naverno]

You can never underestimate the gullibility of the public.

[@saitama4650]

"Traffic in the US is a serious problem" An Indian watching the video: *Interesting*

[@dotdashdotdash]

I guess they haven’t been to Thailand either

[@lucy9877]

Look up Elon Musk meets Post Malone It’s too funny! 👽 😂

[@willa8720]

Indonesian: what a noob

[@HarryHov]

Ahahaha

[@d20a55]

😂😂😂 or Bangladesh 🇧🇩

[@green_monday]

Genius using PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION funds to build tunnels with high tolls for CAR TRAVEL

[@Jakob_DK]

Yes, I also expected the benefit would be that it was private tunnels, built with private money.

[@asitpatel832]

Not to mention, those tunnels require purchasing Elon's own brand cars. I am just apalled by how stupid America is.

[@powerbeard5653]

@@asitpatel832 not stupid, corrupt. that's what happens when "lobbying" (bribery) exists as part of your system.

[@Pistolita221]

Economic GENIUS! And, he builds the tunnel and the cars! All in house! Really, we should cut out the middle men and eliminate city councils, EPA, FDA, DOT, etc. and let elon collect donations from people's digital bank account according to how much google and amazon think you're worth, and saving. Because somebody has to do it, and we can't infringe on corporate profits.

[@kevinbailey8827]

So far he hasn't done that. He used hotel tax funds to build a loop that belongs to the Convention Center. And the Convention Center is not charging for rides. No outside vehicles (Tesla or not) are part of the LVCC Loop. The Las Vegas Loop that has been approved will have 29 miles of tunnels and 51 stations (though it could grow from there). The Boring Company is not charging anyone to build the tunnels. Casinos and other venues will pay for the stations. So no PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION funds. And though it will also use Teslas, no outside vehicles will be allowed in this system either. So no high tolls. Just fares for passengers. The fares go to TBC, and the sales tax goes to the local governents. Instead of using local funds, it pays back! Since he's not doing the thing you said makes him a genius, does it mean you don't think he is one?

[@georgelabe-assimo4365]

As an American, I love the fact that practically everyone in the comments is basically saying to build trains lol

[@lsfornells]

Is this a genuine comment?, or just sarcasm

[@user-vu4hr4fk3t]

As a non American I confirm

[@murdelabop]

As an American who has traveled places with real transit, I agree. There is nothing Hypeloop can do that trains can't do better.

[@jonz23m]

I hope Elon will invent the train soon. He would single handedly revolutionize transportation!!

[@someoneyoudontknowthename3931]

nah because trains do not sell tesla model x

[@Georgi_Slavov79]

😄

[@yezu3r]

I thought it was because there's a shortage of colour changing LEDs

[@backflipsaresweet]

LMAO

[@Algotube]

all the teenagers took them

[@MSaleh-vy8rr]

Thunderf00t was right 🤣

[@earth2k66]

HyperLED.

[@Tate525]

Ohh yeah definitely that was the primary concern, nothing quite like stroke inducing Led's after a hard day at office.

[@mybigjak]

the us car dependency is something comical

[@MarkVonBaldi]

Dystopic. Almost every city in the US is.

[@crissd8283]

The US is not like the EU. The cities like LA is very spread out. Mass transit works best with condensed living space. Unfortunately most of LA is zoned single family home thus making density very difficult. It is the governments fault that density is low and thus mass transit is inefficient. The best thing we can do is ease up on zoning. Build commercial properties at ground level and residential above is a good thing. Fourplexs are far more dense and much better for promoting mass transit. End this ridiculous zoning and let people make their own decisions.

[@r0bert852]

@@crissd8283 Yes this is the best answer right here, American cities are not small and packed like European

[@luisgutierrez8047]

@@crissd8283 it's not just "the government" it's homeowners. They vote for the status quo so that their home prices keep going up in value. And on the left, people out there: "MLK shat here once so it has historical significance, so no condos here" "the condo casts a partial shadow on this preschool, think of the CHIDREN!"

[@karld1791]

@@crissd8283 Right. We need more homes close to jobs anyway. Upzone and build more homes by transit. People could go to work without adding more traffic and transit would have riders to pay for it.

[@mayurbhor2231]

Americans be like , We will dig wormholes through space but not use trains.

[@GloriousSquizoKing.]

@@ccriztoff People in America

[@saptarshichatterjee36]

How to solve traffic? Build better towns and suburbs and cities where you don't have to drive everywhere

[@rubenayla]

This is one of the few arguments I agree with. However underground tunnels would free the surface from roads and would make it easier to have good towns

[@aono335]

@@rubenayla nope. It wouldnt. You needs trains and metro and trams.

[@rubenayla]

@@aono335 Well, obviously it would. That's not the discussion. If you put everything underground, it's underground. You have freed the surface. Another question would be wether it's worth it. I think yes

[@alttirta]

@@rubenayla that just gonna adding new lane, and what freed the surface?, Are they gonna agree to remove the road?

[@rubenayla]

@@alttirta If you have underground highways and main roads, people will ask the government or whoever is in charge to remove those roads from the surface. Whenever they break because of the rain or snow, it would seem stupid to spend money on them when there's already a better alternative.

[@physxme]

when they're calculating how much faster they can dig, did they take into consideration that their tunnel is much smaller in diameter compared to, say, metro tunnels?

[@alanlight7740]

That's the whole point. By going to a smaller diameter, costs are reduced.

[@physxme]

@@alanlight7740 the utility value of a smaller diameter tunnel is also lower, is this sacrifice worth it?

[@alanlight7740]

@@physxme - why do you say that the utility is lower? Loop takes advantage of the fact that electric cars do not need as much ventilation as ICE vehicles in order to reduce the size of the tunnel that is required, thus reducing the cost. Containing only one lane handling traffic in only one direction, there is no danger of head on collisions, or even of side collisions except at entry points. This reduces the complexity of automation considerably. Compared to traditional tunnels, two of these tunnels have just as much utility (if not more) while being much cheaper.

[@pinkyfull]

They're actually exactly the same size as new sub lines in London. So when it inevitably fails they can at least be used for underground rail.

[@Tate525]

@@pinkyfull But the Americans still won't build Metros/Trains on them, they will abandoned with all the stroke inducing LED lights

[@landroveraddict2457]

Er no, if there is one thing this has proved it's that computer graphics are the best tool for snake oil sales.

[@joshturner9766]

i dont get why its oil snakes when this is made for electric cars? if we got electric from wind and water we wouldnt even have this argument

[@anujmchitale]

And it's also clarifies how much of a BSer Elon Musk really is.

[@DAndyLord]

@@joshturner9766 The whole concept is not sound. Musk is a conman.

[@bighands69]

They have done tunnels and it has worked. So no idea what any of you are talking about.

[@DAndyLord]

@@bighands69 He successfully dug tunnels. Those tunnels were sold as pneumatic high speed mass transit. Instead it's cars driving down tubes, heck each car needs an individual driver and only travels at like 40km/h.

[@DoubleOhSilver]

12:31 "very charismatic CEO" - wow, standards are at an all time low

[@chrisblyat792]

But he is

[@Mirphise]

They where always low for this kind of things.

[@sorryi6685]

I mean, I don't like him but he is. Or he has developed it through years by PR. People hate Bezos and Zukenberg while loving psychopaths like Steve Jobs and Musk

[@sumithrasumi6561]

@@sorryi6685 Shut up , I hate Steve Jobs due to his personality but he is a visionary, genius and before saying him as a psychopath, accomplish 1% of his legacy and then speak. I hate musk , he isn't a genius of any kind

[@sorryi6685]

@@sumithrasumi6561 Jobs had common sense and style in a land filled with Nerds. He knew what average Joe wanted because he was an average Joe. Steve Wozniak was an actual genius so was Xerox employees for GUI, Toshiba for iPod hardisk etc and Apple engineers who made Jobs common sense a reality

[@SirEdwardeight]

He is indeed a genius: he still manages to convince people to give him money.

[@schmetterling4477]

By selling the best cars and rockets on the planet. Yes. Indeed. How's your lemonade stand going? ;-)

[@SirEdwardeight]

@@schmetterling4477 You really do not get the problem, do you? Count the amount of project he supported that succeeded, then count those that failed, and a) notice the numbers, and b) try to find exactly what part he actually had on each of those projects.

[@schmetterling4477]

@@SirEdwardeight I get it that you don't even have a lemonade stand, kid. :-)

[@SirEdwardeight]

@@schmetterling4477 I get that you bought one from Musk.

[@schmetterling4477]

@@SirEdwardeight A car or a rocket? :-)

[@georgeemil3618]

Let me understand this. It's a tunnel for single cars and I'm guessing for predetermined stops. So to be successful, it'll be full of single cars all lined up going to the same places. That means at each exit point, there will be a logjam of cars decelerating from 120mph to zero trying to get out of the tunnel and back into city streets.

[@gobblox38]

No, the logjam will be from cars decelerating from 30 to 0 mph.

[@jeremypnet]

@@gobblox38 what do you mean”will”? That implies in the future. There’s already a video all over KZbin of a traffic jam in the LVCC loop.

[@boredasfuuck]

@@gobblox38 damn you took away what i was going to say LOL

[@ashupatil9098]

@3:47 was that sarcasm

[@the_kombinator]

Also, there's just going to be traffic in the tunnels too. On top of that, if one car breaks down, then what?

[@luisosorio962]

It's insane how people it's amazed by this "innovative project" when subways are being doing the same thing for decades.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Only difference is that Elon is doing it cheaper. That's about it. Then again he did help make rocket launching cheaper as well.

[@magnusnielsen4409]

Well, the hype is it's gonna be a lot cheaper and a lot faster as well. Also, it's would be Ludacris to say there is no difference between metroing and what they are trying to do. I don't know what i you want but it's a hell of alot bettter to pay 10 mil a mile then a few hundred million!. 2 billion for 1.5 miles when metros do it but 10 mil for boring company mile. Not saying that the metro builders have other challenges that makes it more expensive but not 1.9 billion more.

[@lcifermorningstar191]

Cars in a subway system. That's amazing and had never been done before.

[@degummybear]

@@silverhawkscape2677 Well the tunnel is also smaller.

[@mmikael281]

@@magnusnielsen4409 Metros capacity is at least 100x more.

[@PixelShade]

It's kind of crazy that US does everything they can circumvent any real solution to their problem... like offering real alternative transportation methods instead of cars. Imagine being able to live in a city where you can walk or stroll freely, while everything you need is within walk-able distance, imagine a city where you can cycle without getting hit or run over by cars, imagine a city where public transportation is plentiful and cheap. Those traffic jams (which musk hates) would seize to exist since people wouldn't need to depend on the low carrying capacity of cars. The US infrastructure we see today is a failed 1950s experiment envisioned by GM and has since become institutionalized by law. Musk isn't solving any problems. He is only offering ways to slightly circumvent the real problem while at the same time selling his own tech to gain massive amounts of wealth. I mean, a trains/trams/subways wouldn't need massive amounts of lithium ion storage. Just imagine how much better that would be for the environment. Musk's vision of the future is still just a sad tech-revamped version of the failed 1950s GM vision. He is a charismatic salesperson. nothing more, nothing less.

[@TheStarBlack]

Symptom of the blind faith in rich people over unglamorous, sensible government projects.

[@LordOfFreedom]

It really speaks to a lack of imagination, doesn't it? So many people (in Canada too, to a lesser extent) grew up in car-dependent suburbs and can't seem to imagine anything outside of a car. Just imagine how much better so many U.S. cities would be if they weren't built/bulldozed for cars.

[@neutrino78x]

"agine being able to live in a city where you can walk or stroll freely, while everything you need is within walk-able distance" You mean like London, New York, San Jose (aka "silicon valley") and every other major city in the world? "Those traffic jams (which musk hates) would seize to exist since people wouldn't need to depend on the low carrying capacity of cars" Show me a major city that doesn't have traffic jams? You're living in a fantasy world.

[@kalle911]

@@neutrino78x At least one lane should be for public transport, so a faster alternative would still exist. If cars jam a two-lane street and public transport can't get through, ban cars from such a street. Easy.

[@yazeedalhusban969]

I think everyone are missing the point. If this idea (or more cost effective ditch and cover technique) became mainstream . We can forbid the space taking, accidents causing, noisy, polluting cars above the ground. So above ground will be reserved for bikes, walking, light rail and trams and small shops in the middle of the street. Why do we put the low efficiency cars that take a lot of space above ground while public transport underground, it should the other way around. This also allows cars into a controlled environment, that can implement self-drive safely. It's a win on all side.

[@Inanitas_]

As a European honestly I don't get this hype having own car. I lived in Warsaw and Vienna and I didn't need a damn car ever and I don't want to have one. Public transportation in both cases is great (note, that Poland was so called communist country and Austria West European).

[@julicoole]

I've live in Miami my whole life. There's plenty of places in the city that would be maybe a 25, 30 minute drive, and even if everything went right, metro, busses etc it would take 3-4 hours each way by public transit. Hell even just getting to the metro is a couple miles, and the bus going there usually comes once an hour. (And the last one comes at like 10 pm or something). And the metro has like 15 stops for a city of millions, the idea of taking the metro and then walking is silly unless you're going to the very center of downtown. It's take a bus to the metro, wait 5-15 minutes for the train (can easily be longer if it's the weekend), then ride to your stop, and from there, take two more busses. The idea of leaving my house without a car is like, kind of ridiculous. I do it because I like my neighborhood and enjoy walking to the ATM to pull out cash or whatever (even that is over a mile), I walk and bike and stuff but it takes HOURS to get anywhere real. It's a psychological thing, my whole life a car is the only way to get to school, work, friend's houses, anywhere in

[@sebastiangruenfeld141]

I feel like trains could do a better and more inexpensive job solving traffic jams

[@krysatheo]

They aren't very viable in most of the US as residential areas are not consolidated...

[@NPAMike]

Tried that its not profitable people like their own cars to take public transportation.

[@snare5903]

"inexpensive" just ask California how thats going on.

[@adamt195]

@@krysatheo All of these projects proposed so far are in downtown areas. The FTL and LA proposal were to shuttle people from a train station to a destination. Where there would be a separate fee to use the Teslas instead of just making it an expansion of the metro train system.

[@earthskies.3662]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmK3naVvjc-ao5I

[@beback_]

"Imagine something like a subway, but with a fraction of the passenger capacity..." "THAT'S GENIUS, ELON!"

[@Dennis-ns1yx]

xD ikr?

[@letsmakegadgets6899]

@420KinK I don't get this argument, since you can make the same amount of metros for the lower tunneling cost, and transport more people.

[@denes123s]

@@letsmakegadgets6899 metro costs over a billion. How is it the same? This tunnel is just 10 million

[@MattSeabolt]

Less than 5% of the U.S. population uses public transportation. Americans , overall, just don't prefer to use the subway or the bus. That is the reality of the situation. But I guess watching empty buses drive around town wasting tax payer money and polluting is your answer? How much money did Amtrak make last year? Last decade? Listen, I'm all for public transportation but as impractical as it may sound, the average American is sitting in traffic burning a tank of gas right now.

[@MashZ]

@420KinK 1/20th of the cost, 1/4th the speed and 1/400th practical capacity per hour (1/100th theoretical capacity)

[@richardbrown1189]

Remarkable that tunnelling has been going on since the Victorian era and in all of that time all the tunnelling experts in the world haven't come up with Musk's simple solutions for a 15x increase in speed. Yeah, right.

[@nagyba]

“sMaLlEr tUnEl” 😂

[@Hailfire08]

Don't forget it's also 10 times cheaper too. Uhh, don't look at those numbers though. Just listen and believe. _All hail Musk..._

[@brandonlink6568]

TLDW: Because they're impracticable ideas that could be done much quicker and cheaper with trains and trams.

[@TMXP87]

Elon is late to the game, have you heard of El Chapo Sinaloa Tunnels Inc.

[@ninadvirkar9097]

Should let the professionals handle it. They are discreet and quick 😂😂😂

[@nathanielross8743]

They’ll build it for cheaper too

[@untouchable360x]

lol. funniest comment.

[@mahendharthatikonda6050]

Have u heard of Hamas tunnels to Israel?

[@walkerpaulp6526]

Nope

[@abhigyanghosh9330]

So let me get this straight, people thought that it was a brilliant idea to make cars go in tunnels instead of having practical public transport as a solution to traffic.

[@beni2cc]

Why does everyone think that fixes traffic

[@abhigyanghosh9330]

@@beni2cc I think that there are more stakeholders involved with keeping cars on the road than shift to public transport. Ever wondered why third world countries have better public transport than the US?

[@abhigyanghosh9330]

@UC65xYOA4cqrAvzArtfaK9ZQ I am not opposed to captialism as much as corporate lobbying per say

[@sophisticated7089]

@@abhigyanghosh9330 Good whole capitalism, not inline with efficiency nor practicality.

[@user-gc1hg9sp9k]

Thunderf00t has already cover this

[@optimusmech5313]

Imagine Elon and his team discussing feasibility of a project Elon: let's take a really old idea and make it more expensive. And yes, it has to be nonsensical obviously. Elons team: yes Fanboys throwing money ensues

[@DonGonTheOne]

Don’t forget to use fancy disco lights to make it look futuristic.

[@Hailfire08]

@@DonGonTheOne and a bunch of CGI videos of it

[@Brandonhayhew]

Hire designers to make it look realistic and shine to marketing it. Public buys this idea, Elon rips the profits

[@Mind1e55]

when an engineer start speaking with a german accent, no matter what you say after, you'll be wrong

[@Mirphise]

Made me laugh quite hard ^^

[@phenomenalphysics3548]

I didn't get it. Please explain

[@ryoh4607]

that man is archaic. this is the same as basically if 10 years ago, the Chief Engineer of General Motors is explaining why 'EVs will never work because x y z'. Look whos laughing now?

[@MrWizardjr9]

@@ryoh4607 so why does musk keep canceling his tunnels?

[@bluegas]

Japan has high speed trains since the 60s, France since the 70s, Germany has it since the 80s, Spain since the 90s. China built more high speed than all these countries combined last 15 years. About density: Spain has no population density between Madrid and Seville. USA: no high speed, highways that look and feel old and sub par compared to many countries, bridges in disrepair, airports that also look overdue... 😢

[@lowrads3653]

America's rail systems are privately owned, and their owners treat them like parking spots. Coal doesn't care when it arrives.

[@sunnycorax]

@@lowrads3653 America's industrial rail infrastructure is privately owned. It's passenger rail is not.

[@tombotombola]

@@euphoricmonk yes let’s ignore the other examples and ignore that Europe and China managed 🙄

[@hypercomms2001]

@@euphoricmonk Then compare the United States against Europe. In the case of the United States, the car industry conspired to destroy both light rail and heavy rail, for example, the well known destruction of the Los Angeles streetcar network in 1946. In the years since then, the United States has had and obsession with the motorcar, that is not shared in Europe. After Japan, France then the rest of Europe built the second high-speed rail network starting from the late 70s that is now amongst the most extensive network’s in the world.

[@euphoricmonk]

@@hypercomms2001 I know, it was an evil deed. If CA or LA had real leadership they would be suing these mega corporations for ripping out the rail lines in effort to get people to buy more cars and take bus lines as it were. But they are in fact too in bed with corporations now to do anything meaningful.

[@Atomic361]

Finally a mainstream news segment that doesn't eat up everything that Elon feeds them

[@nikolatasev4948]

Hey, I was reading at watching people on mainstream media predicting Elon will fall on his face for many years. Bob Lutz has explained Tesla are running out of money, how its battery business is failing, and so on since forever. Tesla bashing is about as large portion of the media business as is Tesla praising.

[@jasonge1]

Rail lines are the key to solving traffic, not more cars

[@davidlowe4072]

I was thinking the same thing. Why not make some tiny speed rails.

[@QuestioningYourSanity]

Elon Musk farts into his hand, calls it flowers, and people are clapping. Amazing.

[@billythorne]

I'm curious, why doesn't the US simply learn how to solve traffic from other counties (for example Japan, particularly Tokyo with their extensive train services), and instead seems to propose wild ideas that likely won't work?

[@ShonTolliverMusic]

Because the US is ridiculously large compared to more dense and smaller countries. By large, I mean area, terrain, and distance between regions. It's HUGE.

[@krysatheo]

Other places like Japan have very high density residential areas or trains make a lot of sense, not so much in most of the US...

[@xiaoka]

What a great idea. Let’s do that. First tear down all the American cities and suburbs built since 1940 and rebuild them nice and dense like Tokyo with lots of land set aside in advance for tracks and stations.

[@jupiterjames4201]

have you seen how crowded the trains are hahahahah

[@HilaLeftMe]

People like cars here and the associated independence and sense of freedom

[@seans6999]

I find it amazing that to prive its " innovative" project the boring company will build tunnels for everything but trains because investors would realise its just a dumb subway

[@davefroman4700]

Traditional subway building would cost 10x as much and take 20 times as long.

[@1121494]

@@davefroman4700 Traditional subway has, you know, actual capacity moving people, unlike stupid more lane ideas of any shape, that always just creates even more traffic.

[@Freshbott2]

@@davefroman4700 road tunnels have the highest cost to capacity of any transport infrastructure. The limits are fundamental not an engineering problem. Don't get fooled by pretty animations

[@QueenetBowie]

If they could build the tunnels cheaper than conventional subway tunneling, it would be a win for investors and the public

[@Freshbott2]

@@QueenetBowie If you can build a tunnel cheaper then you can build a subway tunnel cheaper.

[@lexus8018]

It's like a train! But without the perks of being a train

[@lexus8018]

@@MrRaowens1 Yes, some passenger trains have car carriages attatched alongside with passenger cabins, you travel by train with your car being on the same train as you. (or on another train following close behind you)

[@kevinbailey8827]

@@lexus8018 I have ridden the AutoTrain a couple of times. It was great. I wish they had more than just one route in the United States.

[@Waldemarvonanhalt]

Adding lanes, above or below ground, just creates more traffic by induced demand.

[@nickmontero]

As someone who has lived in Fort Lauderdale all his life, I can tell you the project is one of the last things we need in our city. Yes it would be cool, but instead of building tunnels for wealthy tourists to take an express route to the beach, we should build tunnels to create a better public transit system for people who actually live here. The mayors of Miami and Fort Lauderdale are wrongly falling for Elon’s unnecessary projects.

[@chromebomb]

Doing what you say would actually make sense and is reasonable. Exactly why it will never happen.

[@frankyflowers]

they should use that money to subsidize ride sharing so they have a lot of them and they make money. all public transit costs a ton so they would have a giant fortune to work with.

[@thoughtpolice9847]

Then have your government spend your money building one.. and if Elon builds one then boycott it or whatever.. for being a lifetime Florida resident I find it odd that you are against wealthy tourism projects. Your economy is built on tourism. Weird.

[@frankyflowers]

@@thoughtpolice9847 maybe if it was a tunnel through an aquarium or something tourist would care. it doesn't look that exciting. its not going to be fast.

[@octaviusjohnson6243]

Remeber.... Planes and trains were for the wealthy at the beginning. Same with flat tvs.

[@SmiIeyyXD]

Trains? Nope. Literally ANYTHING faster? Nope. Tunnels for cars? *yes*

[@MoJosMojo]

You see subways are where super villains always hide making them unsafe

[@dethrophes7283]

Rich and powerful people dont like being on trains. This is more like a private jet... so ...

[@squidcaps4308]

@@dethrophes7283 It is tax payer paid private tunnel. Stonecutters tunnel + Monorail = Hyperloop.

[@dethrophes7283]

@@squidcaps4308 I never said it wasn't. I'm just explaining why there is so much hype about it. Rich and powerful people like the idea.

[@SophisticatedDogCat]

Why on Earth should we install trains? Spend tens of billions of dollars, shut down traffic during construction for a few people to use it in an era of remote work? I don’t think so.

[@JeyPeyy]

I know too little about tunnel building to tell if it can be vastly improved in cost and speed. But what I do know is that adding underground highways won't solve congestion. It could even worsen it through induced demand.

[@kevinbailey8827]

You may be right. Despite the five-year old CGI that people are debunking, none of the projects TBC has actually proposed will act as underground highways. You won't be able to drive your own vehicle into them, even if you drive a Tesla. They are closed, like a metro system. Even if you have your own train, you probably won't be allowed do drive it along the metro tracks. In a system like the one in Vegas that they're just starting, none of the cars up top will get moved to highways underground, but many tourists will opt not to rent cars if they think they can get around easily using the Loop. And many who take taxis or Uber will find the Loop more convenient and faster. Even cheaper. So those people will not be in vehicles above ground. That may ease traffic above ground temporarily, but induced demand might make it just as bad as more people bring cars in anyway,. A traditional subway would have the same effect. People taking the subway will just free up room on the surface for more people to come in. I don't think the casinos mind. More grist for the mill. If you really want to fix traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard and other high-vehicular traffic areas, you do what they did decades ago on Fremont Street. Turn the streets into pedestrian malls. But to make that work on the Strip, you need a subway system or a loop. And they're getting a loop, so maybe someday...

[@Hailfire08]

Tunnel boring machines are over a hundred years old, so were it possible to miraculously make it ten times faster and ten times cheaper by snapping your fingers, it'd have been done. Any time someone makes such claims the first assumption has to be that it's BS, and with Musk's track record, well... Oh and his tunnel is indeed cheaper (though iirc it was also very slow, a mile a year or something), but only because it's tiny. Cost scales with tunnel area.

[@kevinbailey8827]

@@Hailfire08 I don't think the idea is to make them miraculously faster by snapping your fingers.

[@FebiMaster]

To be honest the service and pedestrian tunnel idea is great, in a lot of major cities, utilities are often just literally buried under the roads, which will block the whole road if they need to fix and maintain the pipes and cables, pedestrian tunnels are also a great way to move people from far away places accross busy intersections, highways, and roundabouts without disrupting traffic and having to deal with environment exposure (rain, snow, sunlight), but i have doubts with freight and loop

[@Publicistvideos]

This is what happens when we value $ over knowledge. Instead of asking urban planners what the real causes and solutions of traffic are, we waste time listening to a software nerd who has no idea what he’s talking about.

[@HavokBWR]

Weve asked urban planners in the states before and we still end up with "Chicago Spent $400M On a Subway Superstation to Nowhere". Lets let someone else try out a transit system this time.

[@alejandro6823]

@@HavokBWR is almost as if the people that study how to build cities would know more about cities and how people interact with them than a billionaire with a crave for more money and validation from his online groupies

[@HavokBWR]

@@alejandro6823 I love how you read my comment and then it instantly exited your brain and you defaulted back to your previous opinion of "rich twitter man bad!". WE. ASKED. THE . CITY. PLANNERS. BEFORE. AND. LOST. HALF. A. BILLION. ON. A. TRAM. THAT. NOBODY. USES. How is this not staying inside that thick skull of yours??? Let me guess "JaPanN dOeS iT aNd AmEriCa iS JaPAn sO thAt mEaNs aNytHinG tHat tHey dO wiLl aUtoMaTiCAllY wOrK hErE... Even though it clearly keeps not working in America. What is wrong with your brain ???

[@gonzayare]

He is a great entrepreneur and not well known a software engineer or any kind of engineer. He indeed has no clue about what he is talking about but as a great sales man that helps to attract investors.

[@HavokBWR]

@@gonzayare and you know this because you've personally worked along side of him right? Ive seen experts who actually work in these industries who have actively worked with Musk saying how brilliant he is... But I'm sure some random commenter knows exactly what Elon actually does and doesn't do...

[@kerriekupar6466]

You know a better solution for traffic? Public transportation.

[@toxicityuser]

nty we don’t wanna get mixed with the poor peasants (being sarcastic)

[@willblack8575]

Less immigration

[@bholuwhoop5944]

Yeah, but that's way more tough to implement considering US' highly capitalistic nature...

[@HitGardenStudio]

yub , The Metro

[@wtfMlwatching]

Why would you say something so controversial, yet so brave.

[@robertplatt1693]

Individual mobility is neat but mass transit is the only way, ultimately. Gripe all you want, there's no escaping it. Urban spaces are the most productive and wealthy, and we don't have room for cars. Even if they're underground. This might work for deliveries, which is a much more organized enterprise. Chicago had an underground railway in the downtown entirely for delivery, 100 years ago. These days it's a conduit for high-speed data.

[@still_guns]

The Vegas Loop is literally slower than walking.

[@evenbetterthanyouthink]

He should just turn the tunnels for train use instead.

[@MattSeabolt]

Less than 5% of the U.S. population uses public transportation. Americans , overall, just don't prefer to use the subway or the bus. That is the reality of the situation. But I guess watching empty buses drive around town wasting tax payer money and polluting is your answer? How much money did Amtrak make last year? Last decade? Listen, I'm all for public transportation but as impractical as it may sound, the average American is sitting in traffic burning a tank of gas right now.

[@SebisRandomTech]

@@MattSeabolt Congratulations, you know how to copy and paste! Great job! 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@wylierichardson6519]

@@MattSeabolt America hates public transit because we have a bad public transit system, bad public transit infrastructure, and bad laws and policies compared to most European countries. America hates public transit because we have a crappy public transit system. If it were better people would use it more

[@GabrielAndrewPolloGuilbert]

@@wylierichardson6519 Exactly. It's a viscous circle. Public transits in the US is bad, thus people aren't using it. Since people aren't using it, infrastructure investments goes into more road and highway. And less money goes into improving public transits, restarting the cycle.

[@user-bn4rc6gg6x]

@@MattSeabolt is

[@karth33k]

"Developed country isn't where everyone owns a car...but where everyone can comfortably use public transport"

[@MashZ]

This

[@frankyflowers]

how can everyone have that when a country is so expansive and population densities in places don't warrant any?

[@AnsarAli-kv1hh]

@@frankyflowers where there is a will, there is a way

[@frankyflowers]

@@AnsarAli-kv1hh the people are spread out like Siberia in some of the USA. like 20 miles or more between people. it would be cheaper to buy them free cars than run busses and trains to them.

[@MashZ]

@@frankyflowers Big cities in USA have 10 to 20 lanes of roads and even thats not enough while most of Europe can get away with 6-8 lanes thanks to their public transport system. And you're telling me USA doesnt need any public transport? Did you ever visit any other country? Or even visit one of your bigger cities at least?

[@joaomarcus3160]

You know, it would have been actually awesome if Musk invested all the money on improving tunnel construction only.

[@ianosgnatiuc]

The tunel construction is nearly ideal already. You cannot improve it.

[@halimkbas2883]

As a civil engineering consultant with years of transportation infrastructure experience I can say this without any hesitation. Building a single lane tunnel for cars is idiotic. It will not solve the traffic problem. It may suffocate a bunch of people when one of those electric cars catches on fire though.

[@kevinbailey8827]

So far the LVCC loop and extensions are working well. Passenger wait times during the busy CES averaged less than 10 seconds. Trip times averaged less than 2 minutes. I have a hard time imagining a rail based system that could match that level of service. Especially one that could be built underground or elevated for less than $50 million.

[@rammendozapogi]

a subway for 5 people. revolutionary

[@MarkVonBaldi]

Surely there will be improvements. Like the adding more capacity by a new revolutionary technology called "One Engine With Various Passangers Carts™". Next there will change the motor from using batteries to use electricity by connecting to a "Hyper Electrical Chargin Rod™". And lastly they will change the rubber wheels to a revolutionary system of using steel wheels over layed "Hyper Tracks™". Dude, imagine that...

[@chromebomb]

just wait!!! Elon will then REVOLUTIONIZE this by making a long "pod" that can hold up to 50 people at a time! It will then have an overhead power system so they wont have to lug around those batteries! Genius!

[@MattSeabolt]

Less than 5% of the U.S. population uses public transportation. Americans , overall, just don't prefer to use the subway or the bus. That is the reality of the situation. But I guess watching empty buses drive around town wasting tax payer money and polluting is your answer? How much money did Amtrak make last year? Last decade? Listen, I'm all for public transportation but as impractical as it may sound, the average American is sitting in traffic burning a tank of gas right now.

[@Luigi64real]

@@MattSeabolt People don't use public transportation because it sucks. And it sucks because politician rather spend it on stupid magical solutions like these that end up making things worse

[@Duesi2024]

@@MattSeabolt The keyproblem in the US is, that there are no connections, while u might be able to use a public bus in the city u can't get out without a car. So everyone needs a car and oh wonder, why should i use public transportation if i need a car anyway...^^

[@ShotokanShaun]

Another solution to ease traffic congestion: Have more people work remotely. Just saying.

[@kambam172]

Just curious or a hypothetical nothing wrong or against your opinion however what about if you work from home wouldn’t that cause more people to go outside and venture out since there work environment can be technically “anywhere” because my teachers during highschool would teach at a cafe😂😂

[@austeyen5628]

@@kambam172 sounds like it would be a lot less hectic and scheduled than rush hours though

[@jordanv9609]

Not an option when you sell cars I suppose

[@timosgood9468]

So i build a house from home your saying? i will do that thanks

[@kambam172]

@@timosgood9468 brother respectfully what are You talking about? What I was saying is that if You work from home the convenience of Working in a proper environment can be anywhere You can be in a hotel, on a resort, a cruise or maybe even in Miami I am merely stating that if You work from home it allows you to Broaden your workspace which I though can possibly increase more of congestion since people would Use transportation as a means to get to these viable working places that’s all….

[@garethx12]

So Elon Musk reinvented subways but crappier and with less throughput. What a genius!

[@williamhuang8309]

The problem of the Boring tunnels is that they do not fix traffic- they shift the problems elsewhere. The tunnels themselves are fine, but their usage is... questionable. The early concept tunnels are now essentially an extra lane of underground highway that dump people onto the surface streets. If the surface streets can't cope, you will still have traffic problems. The new loop feels lacklustre because the Teslas have a terrible capacity, even compared to a light metro line. The tunnels are also the right size for metro trains, which feels like underused potential. Replace the paved roads with tracks, install a third rail for power (you won't have enough space for overhead wires) and replace the battery-powered Teslas with third rail trains.

[@claytonhalligan2067]

Let’s just build walkable bikeable cities. Any traffic engineer knows that more lanes don’t fix traffic, it just adds more cars

[@RealDruMega]

I’m not riding a bike in the rain. You got me bugged out

[@privateerburrows]

More lanes for standard cars add more cars. More lanes for electric cars only adds electric cars while subtracting ICE garbage.

[@alanlight7740]

That's only true when you are limited by a single layer of roads. With multiple levels of tunnels it is quite easy to add sufficient lanes to keep up with increases in traffic, especially as the nature of the tunnels reduces conflicts with not only other cars but pedestrians, cyclists, animals, etc. Speaking of which, diverting automotive traffic underground will eventually mean more bikeable, walkable cities. Might even be able to add a few tunnels for cyclists and pedestrians to enable them to commute that way year round. Once the driving is automated it should also allow one lane to carry as much traffic as three lanes with human drivers. The key issue is bringing the cost down where tunnels are competitive with traditional solutions. One thing this report somehow neglected to mention was that the Las Vegas Convention Center had a competitive bid process - and The Boring Company's bid was about one quarter the cost of the alternative.

[@jsponson]

@@RealDruMega I hear you. That’s why I’d like to see bike-car hybrids like the Toyota i-Road. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKq0Ypuhq5aloJY

[@FromMars2k]

In my region in Germany we have multiple different train networks that work together, though I wish we had even more trains. In the us with all this vast space trains would work even better. Most cities with more than 100k people have a tram or even a subway system, which often extends to neighboring small cities. Cities with more than 10k people and even some smaller cities are connected by faster trains going 120km/h (70mph) with stops every 5 - 20km (3-12mi). In larger cities you can change from those faster trains to long distance trains that go up to 300km/h (180mph) that have stops every 30 - 200km (18 - 120mi). Trams and especially the faster trains could thrive in us suburbs I think. Long distance high speed trains are a great alternative to planes (far more comfortable and spacious) and easily beat driving and definitely should be a thing in the us, too.

[@Bobrogers99]

The Las Vegas Loop is a partly-underground taxi service. Las Vegas needs a public transport system, and this isn't it.

[@FrappeInsider]

Dude, this project is GENIUS! I love how there is a tunnel that has a car going through it! It's not your own car though, you have to enter a station to use it! Now, what if we made it so one big vehicle could carry large groups of people to the same destination? I've never seen that before. I don't even think it's possible!

[@kevinbailey8827]

It’s possible, but everyone on the big vehicle would have to stop at every station until they got to the one they wanted. With separate cars, each one can skip all the stations and go directly to the passengers’ destination.

[@FrappeInsider]

@@kevinbailey8827 it would be crazy if there was a way to make a big vehicle service that went straight to people's destinations!

[@FrappeInsider]

@@kevinbailey8827 you really can't defend this stupid tunnel project. it's basically a lower capacity and inefficient version of a problem that already has working solutions.

[@kevinbailey8827]

@@FrappeInsider This project has transported EVERY passenger who showed up for a ride at the LVCC. If they had paid four times as much for a train, it would have carried the same number. How is that a better solution? If the train was built to carry more people then all those seats would be unoccupied. That's not efficient. The newly approved project to cover the "resort corridor" in Las Vegas will have over 50 stations and 34 miles of tunnels. They have said it will be able to handle 57000 passengers in an hour. TBC is paying for the tunnels with its own money (but not out of the goodness of its heart). They expect to make money from passenger fares once it's built. TBC only makes money if it works.

[@FrappeInsider]

@@kevinbailey8827 it's still 4 seater sports cars bro. literally a lower capacity version of a solution that already exists. why have it be a ton of 4 seater sports cars in tunnels than high capacity trains. who says trains carry the same number of passengers as low capacity sports cars? trains do the same things that these cars can do, just better. four times? have you seen the costs of teslas? trains have been around for centuries, doing things better

[@tichengng2737]

Looks like thunderf00t is going mainstream

[@Juan-mw5tt]

finally

[@guptabhishek]

EXACTLY!

[@raymondcasso7966]

About time...

[@greengold6705]

This is typical CNBC they always had nothing but Tesla bears and shorts on for year's, and now they have lost all creditability. So many better sources on just KZbin.

[@Foolish188]

@@greengold6705 Yeah, watch thunderf00t's take down.

[@ristekostadinov2820]

If you have over a million cars on the road concurrently, even 30layers roads under the ground won't fix the problem.

[@chromebomb]

Elon mass produces cars then complains about traffic. 😂

[@ristekostadinov2820]

@@chromebomb he could've made electric buses, but governments would've preasured them for right to repair.

[@abhinavcj1]

Boring tunnels are roughly 100 times cheaper than the most expensive New York/LA tunnels. So you can probably do more than 30 layers easy. You basically need as many levels underground as you have floors above the ground.

[@projectaks4745]

​@@abhinavcj1 The boring tunnels also have 100 times less capacity that a metro system?

[@sethjansson5652]

@@projectaks4745 Your math is off by a large margin. The maximum road capacity is around a four times increase to single lane roads. This is also considering that you are only allowed the 2nd dimension. Take this and incorporate the 3D aspect and you can double, tripple, or even quadruple that of road space. You also forget that underground, there are no traffic systems, which can make navigation completely automated and linear. No lights and signs attached.

[@jannikwendt5263]

4400 passengers per hour are about 1.2 per second... With 4 people per car that would still be a car taking off every 3 seconds I dont think thats gonna be possible in a single lane system

[@kazukishinomiya9424]

Here's an idea, make a metro line. But flashy like how Elon did it. That oughta help

[@mikaxms]

The Boring Company isn't fixing traffic, just like building more highway lanes doesn't solve congestion. Public transport would solve traffic.

[@ghost_D]

Public transportation will fail because Americans want to drive their car

[@euphoricmonk]

Americans want to drive cars because Public Transit became dangerous, dirty rolling insane asylums..and politicians don't care.

[@scottblackburn2969]

Better cameras and network robotics and screens will make travel unnecessary for many.

[@shuandoyle7871]

I think you guys in the comments mean us or usa as Americans well your kinda counting north and South America and yes I know what you mean still doesn’t change anything

[@MagnusBjerkeFB]

More highway lanes does not solve congestion??

[@bassontreble]

How many times in watching this video did I go "JUST BUILD A TRAIN"? Though even better was the proposal to build a stupid tunnel between two places THAT ALREADY HAVE TRAIN SERVICE

[@Global_Optimization]

You can't build a train thru downtown Ft Lauderdale, across the waterway and drop off right at the beach like this Loop will.

[@MattSeabolt]

Less than 5% of the U.S. population uses public transportation. Americans , overall, just don't prefer to use the subway or the bus. That is the reality of the situation. But I guess watching empty buses drive around town wasting tax payer money and polluting is your answer? How much money did Amtrak make last year? Last decade? Listen, I'm all for public transportation but as impractical as it may sound, the average American is sitting in traffic burning a tank of gas right now.

[@SebisRandomTech]

@@MattSeabolt It’s a chicken and egg situation. Public transportation has been cut back more than expanded since the 1950’s. What ultimately killed it was private taxpaying transit companies and passenger railroads having to compete with government funded highways until they went bankrupt or were taken over by public agencies. America has massively subsidized car ownership and gives massive subsidies, tax breaks, and bailouts to auto manufacturers and airlines. Of course not a lot of people are going to use public transportation when the government does the bare minimum to invest in it. How much money have our highways made? How many wars have we gone through to get other countries’ oil? How much money was spent bailing out General Motors?

[@SebisRandomTech]

@@MattSeabolt Funny how you complain about “empty” buses “polluting” and “wasting taxpayer money” when every person that takes the bus or train is taking a polluting car off the road and freeing up traffic. Tell me, when was the last time we made a profit off our highways?

[@blaccpanther8715]

In the UK, High speed rail is costing us an incredible ~$400 million a mile

[@AYVYN]

He’s so good at conveying ingenious surface layer solutions to deeply complex issues, an amazing trait for getting investors and jobs.

[@rd3l]

So they are building Expensive Tunnels to "fix" traffic but then put Electric Taxis to drive a few people inside. If we are on that Level it would make more sense to use a Bus at least. Maybe with Steel wheels and tracks?

[@csibesz07]

I think they didn't want to cause that would drive up the cost.

[@mchlnhs]

The problem isn’t traffic, it’s cars

[@sev7nnn]

Its people

[@PressKevinToContinue]

@@sev7nnn lazy people

[@doirtlee]

The problem is cities.

[@irvinclemente2368]

The problem is America.

[@murdelabop]

For the Fort Lauderdale project, I suspect Elon is about to find out why we don't tunnel much in Florida. Our geology here is limestone karst, which is the most expensive rock to tunnel through. It's full of fissures and voids which have to be grouted before the TBM can be sent through them, or Bad Things can happen.

[@anduuchan]

There’s literally already a tunnel there tho??

[@Enrique-peralta]

@@anduuchan the said expensive not impossible

[@mcmigs1725]

This guy gets it. Tunnels are expensive because they’re risky. We don’t know what’s underground and one false step could be life threatening. And transportation tunnels need cross passages (every 500ft? I can’t remember the exact distance) which is arguably the most risky part of the construction. Air ventilation, water infiltration, power delivery, Telecomm, etc. all need to be considered.

[@frankyflowers]

it just a tiny steel pipe it can support itself. its not like its a fancy tunnel. its like a utility tunnel but not as good.

[@sunnycorax]

@@mcmigs1725 That is the most comical part of the Ft. Lauderdale plan. In Las Vegas, there is only enough room for the car itself and nothing more. No safety features, no escape paths, no fire suppression systems, nothing. I don't know how people could look at the finished product Boring Co. and Musk offered and go "yeah I want that here too only bigger."

[@theodorflorinro]

As a Civil Engineer I can confirm the hustle is with the regulatory bodies not with the technology itself. It costs 2500 Pounds per square meter to build housing in UK and 500 in Eastern Europe. One can argue the quality of built environment is much greater in UK although part of that is due to the regulatory bodies imposing thousands more restrictions and rules. It's also one of the main reasons transportation innovation in advanced economies is much harder than in countries like China.

[@titanbeal4060]

I wish I could turn into a giant robot, and blast lasers out of my hands that built bike lanes and train stations. That would make me happy

[@Loopyengineeringco]

Elon Musk: Lets spend billions to build tunnels that reduce traffic by 1%, so driving across a city becomes slightly more attractive, so more cars drive accross the city & traffic increases.

[@joshturner9766]

u think a tunnel from washington to la will stop traffic by 1%? where did u learn your maths sir

[@Loopyengineeringco]

@@joshturner9766 I did say city. I think Washington to LA tunnel would never happen 🤣 Why would it, most miles of that journey are freeway miles

[@alterego157]

Induced demand is a thing. No one solved traffic jams by adding more lanes.

[@meegz149]

@@joshturner9766 why would you build a tunnel to do that?????

[@euphoricmonk]

@@alterego157 wrong, he's adding lanes underground not over ground, big difference.

[@donaghocallaghan8302]

sewers and small service tunnels are where they should get most of there business, Many places in Europe have old systems from the Victorian era and are due an expansion or upgrade

[@joshturner9766]

damn right son. we have to unblock alot of pipes daily lol, we need them big sewers like merica

[@lowrads3653]

The idea of having to put pedestrian travel underground is rather sad, unless the weather outside is rather extreme.

[@alanmay7929]

Fortunately those old sewage systems are already been expanded. London launched a very project that will last over 120 years.

[@mazkas1476]

No, because Europe already has a robust transit system and doesn’t need snake oil sold by Elon Musk.

[@jujuplayboy]

Adding a new line to fix traffic jams ? Cool ,no-one ever thought of this during the entire 20th century. Sarcasm.

[@David-gj9qr]

Weird how two different contrasting videos are both uploaded by CNBC. One seems to support this idea and the other seems to be against it

[@dallasmckeough3538]

The idea is pretty dumb, and I don't like saying that often. The congestion will be just as bad if not worse at tunnel entryways lol.

[@twany442]

Until they build too many and they start caving in.

[@joshturner9766]

@@twany442 sir there are thousands of miles of dirt below your feet, and putting reinforced concrete tunnles inside wont effect the ground above, wdym cave in lol, pretty sure the experts on physics worked that 1 out on day 1

[@dannym182]

@@twany442 my thoughts exactly. Earthquakes and especially in California only opens so many issues.

[@bighands69]

The tunnel is part of transportation.

[@twany442]

@@dannym182 They'll learn.

[@jnyboy28]

Ohhhh so people are catching on to these rich grifters, collective public transit and urban planning would be the most effective and affordable solution to traffic.

[@euphoricmonk]

right because the (government) is so efficient and eager to create solutions that we all need 🤦🏽‍♂️

[@masonmason8389]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJ3Zp5iZZrqnmNE

[@alericjohansen6775]

@@masonmason8389 The premise of the video is correct, but near the end it goes off the rails. Sadly, that video is for infowars. Just like anything conservative, it has a grain of truth to it. Elon IS a fraud, and most of the history they present in that video is correct, however the end turns bad and starts talking about a novel from 52 and other stupid stuff. Instead, check out this channel and it's videos: Common Sense Skeptic kzbin.info/door/gKWj1pn3_7hRSFIypunYog Then also check out Musk ideas on this channel: Thunderf00t kzbin.info (his other videos are great too of course, but we are talking about Musk ideas currently) They debunk EVERY idea Musk has and show how horrible they are compared to the ways we currently have. Personally I like Common Sense Skeptic a little more, he doesn't beat his points to death like thunderf00t does. Plus I feel is a little more accurate and concise with his points. In either channel you ARE going to have to watch videos MUCH longer than what you linked, but....it's better to get the truth from good sources that don't go stupid like InfoWars does. It's more credible to use someone who isn't insane.

[@stdesy]

Urban planning doesn’t help when you live 25 miles from “urban” and have no interest in living in a city. Those are the people that are stuck in ridiculous traffic every day longer than everyone because they have to commute

[@irokosalei5133]

@@euphoricmonk If you elect braindead people like Trump they sure won't, you have the government you vote. At least Obama started something about your 3rd world healthcare.

[@mostneuter]

Plot twist: they are training at digging and building tunnels for Mars

[@rupertmurdoch469]

May be that's the plan.. to perfect boring technology

[@videos4mydad]

Everyone that has studied the problem agree - the solution to traffic is NOT MORE CARS, its NOT MORE LANES (be it above or under ground). Elon, put your passion behind fixing the U.S. railway system.

[@danekws4878]

light rail makes the most sense economically, and far better environmentally than massive roads and complex tunnels everywhere with loads of cars on/in them.

[@lowrads3653]

I'd rather just take a cable chair lift to the supermarket. No stops and no puddles of piddle.

[@helmaschine1885]

@@lowrads3653 European and Asian trains are Impeccably clean. Socialism and/or even privately run trains maintain public transport easily.

[@tkhannibal2476]

All those tunnels if he turns around and builds Speed Trains would the greatest thing ever. Cz America has a fixation on keeping people stuck on roads to support big oil.

[@johnmacaulay9132]

High speed rail is for intercity transport, basically the opposite of Elon’s tunnels. Metro systems would be nice but American cities just aren’t build for them.

[@jengoroot7099]

Fact 😃 we need rail road like euroup & Asia better 👍

[@Redmanticore]

and if they are maglev trains that go 600km/h, there is no congestion, either. but I guess only china & japan are interested in that. ​@UC-aY_VQZ2S20Kf18VPxdmig technically everything can be changed with political will, but in America, the political will to change cities, I imagine, is nonexistent.in the USA people are thought of as highly individuals, so only a car for the individual is sufficient. which makes traffics. efficient cities cannot be designed in usa.

[@290revolver290]

@@johnmacaulay9132 Facts 💯

[@4ntoCatch]

hyperloop?

[@Imbatmn57]

You know what also be good, making the train system be able to go more places and faster like in Japan.

[@acronvron9665]

Apart from trains crowded cities can also build flyovers like in India. While junctions and signals cause traffic jams, usually flyovers are constructed even in relatively small areas so that those who wish to continue straight can go over and skip the signals. These flyovers will be even cheaper than underground metros. Or cities could build overhead metros like it’s being done in Mumbai. It’s chaotic to construct and causes a lot of traffic during that period but once done it’s arguably the best method of transportation within crowded cities that are poorly planned with narrow roads.

[@101yayo]

This just seems like a convoluted scheme to sell more Teslas.

[@conveyor2]

Because drivers yearn to drive in tunnels?

[@markroeder2491]

Brilliant! The cities buy the tunnels at a drastic discount and Elon sells more environmentally clean vehicles...WIN-WIN.

[@sunnycorax]

Pretty much. He made a shell company to inflate Tesla's sales numbers. At he can scam the city to foot the bill because it is an "infrastructure project."

[@abd-zf2gm]

@@conveyor2 nope, the whole is a big advertisement payed by tax payers.

[@theinternetsavedmylife]

@@conveyor2 It would be the easiest place to integrate autopilot in...A small update on Teslas alongside sensors that'd locate and give info on the precise location of the car would be enough to create a functional system

[@Spectraevil]

Orcs used TBM’s and partnered with The Boring Company to flank the dwarves and elves in The Hobbit and Battle of 5 armies.

[@Eyes0penNoFear]

And all this time I thought Musk was one of the good guys 😥

[@lukethompson5558]

I wonder how many tunnels Elon musk is building in secret right now, only to reveal them when they’re done

[@kylehill3643]

Turns out Calamity Ganon was behind it all.

[@64offsuiter]

Tesla trucks, cybertrucks, the tunneling idea, the starlink internet thingy. All flashy looking ideas but in principle, better solutions already exist or show these ideas to be far far away from optimal

[@martyfoster7053]

What I would like to see, is just fixing traffic signals! In smaller cities, it is the traffic signals that congest traffic... Round a bouts work great... even when there are people who don't know what to do, when they approach one. But the traffic signals, that supposedly automatically sense what they are supposed to do, do not work very well. Just get them more fully functional, by using smart technology, and get traffic moving!

[@Hailfire08]

Better still, fix car dependency. Increase density, make streets smaller and slower while at the same time making them more walkable, adding cycle lanes, and ramping up public transportation. One person walking or cycling take up virtually no space (and no space on the roads), and one person in a packed bus or subway also takes up little to no road space.

[@Hailfire08]

Adding more capacity to the system will just encourage more car use and continue the vicious cycle that built this problem in the first place

[@hurbrowns5397]

This is the first mainstream news channel that finally acknowledge that silly LV loop isn't fixing traffic.

[@MoonLiteNite]

because humans have had tunnels for a while now. Calling it "boring company" will not magically make tunnels better.

[@pcpolice2314]

but its a funny meme

[@neburg6685]

but they are literally more efficient, you're not cool just because you go against anything elon does lol

[@nikolatasev4948]

We also had electric cars for a while now, but it took Tesla for them to become mass market. We also had rockets for a while now, SpaceX just made them far cheaper. If they can tunnel faster and cheaper than everyone else it could be a great business model. Maybe just not in the US where the NIMBY (or in this case Not Under My Back Yard) is this strong.

[@the80386]

@@neburg6685 nope. elon's bait and switch project is literally less efficient than any modern subway system by an order of magnitude.

[@stateofopportunity1286]

Except that they made significant improvements to tunneling technology and procedure...

[@hgm8337]

what do you mean? they are digging out some great storm drains, such as the Vegas Convention Centre

[@purpletigerracing7087]

If this revolutionizes TBM technology and new ways to lower costs in terms of material reuse and logistics, it could be considered a success. But the overall premise of using pods and loops doesn't seem like any sort of improvement over current public transit options.

[@kevinbailey8827]

The passenger experience is better because the pods are ready for you when you get to a station. They leave immediately and take you to your destination (if it's in the system of tunnels) without stopping at any other stations. They even take you to your destination if it's not on the main loop. The pods can exit to a different set of tunnels, and you don't have to get out at a transfer station and wait for another train or bus. Having a full train seems efficient at moving people, but that train is going to slow down and stop to pick up and drop off passengers, then accelerate back up to speed. And then it's going to do that again for the next station. Most of the people are just stuck there while the train stops many places that the passengers don't want to go. A mostly empty train isn't very efficient, so during slow times, they'll run on a less frequent schedule, or the line will shut down completely. That makes it less convenient for the passengers who do want to use it off-peak.