A little embarrassing, the first tunnel that Musk dug to solve the traffic congestion was blocked. This tunnel, located in Las Vegas, belongs to Musk, an underground transportation solution provider: The Boring Company. It is also Musk’s first tunnel to open external operations. In order to solve the tunnel dream of congestion, just after taking the first step, he slapped Musk in the face.
Musk’s tunnel blocked?
To solve the traffic congestion, in addition to limiting the number of vehicles and expanding roads, what other good solutions are there? Musk’s answer is, dig a tunnel, transfer traffic flow from the ground to the ground, and cooperate with automatic driving, the effect is better. But ironically, before the problem was solved, the old problem appeared. The congestion incident happened not long ago at the CES Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
A Tesla owner was driving in the tunnel, but he didn’t want to be in front of the tunnel and was blocked by several Teslas. Moreover, since Musk’s tunnel is a one-way street, the width of the tunnel seems to be a little wider than the vehicle.
If you want to turn around in this situation unless Will Smith is driving the “Men in Black” agent car. The result is that there is no hope for the road ahead, and there is no hope of retreating, which is a dilemma.
It is understood that this congested tunnel: the LVCC loop line, belongs to The Boring Company (boring company, here “Boring” also means “digging a hole”), an underground transportation solution provider.
The LVCC Loop is part of the Vegas Loop, Musk’s future underground transportation system to tackle traffic congestion. At the same time, it is also the first tunnel of Boring Company that is open to the outside world.
According to the official introduction, the LVCC loop is 1.7 miles long (about 2.7 kilometers), the tunnel depth is about 12 meters underground, the construction time span is about 1 year, and the overall construction cost is 47 million US dollars.
This ring system, consisting of two one-way tunnels and three traffic stops, is mainly used to connect the three exhibition halls of the Las Vegas Convention and Exhibition Center. The original 45-minute walking time between exhibition halls can be shortened to 2 minutes by passing through the tunnel.
Who knows, the dream is very full, but the reality is slapped in the face, and the traffic flow is moved from the ground to the ground, but it is blocked in another place.
As for the reason for the congestion, the Tesla car stuck in the tunnel said that the huge traffic flow at CES overwhelmed the tunnel and caused a blockage. And because of the width of the tunnel, the congestion cannot be cleared from the middle, and we can only wait. As of the congestion incident, Musk and Boring Company officials have not responded to the congestion.
Congested tunnels, not the final form?
In fact, judging from the video uploaded by the Tesla owner, the congested tunnel is far from the tunnel shape originally conceived by Musk. It is understood that Musk’s tunnel whims came from a traffic jam encounter. Musk, who has been plagued by traffic jams, tweeted: “Traffic jams are driving me crazy! I’m going to build a tunnel boring machine and start digging tunnels.
Two hours later, Musk’s tunnel plan was officially approved and named “The Boring Company” (it is estimated that Musk was too boring when he was stuck in traffic). In official propaganda, the vehicles in the tunnel do not travel autonomously but run on an electric platform.
This electric platform is similar to a skateboard, capable of autonomous driving, equipped with unified computer monitoring, and optimizes the speed of the platform through seamless arrangements. The vehicle only needs to be parked on the platform, and then the platform will descend to the tunnel floor, carrying the vehicle to run at high speed.
According to official data, the maximum operating speed can even reach 200 kilometers. Musk has previously said that such a network of underground tunnels would have as many as 30 layers and could transport various types of vehicles.
Currently, Boring Company has built two tunnels, in addition to the LVCC loop that is already in operation, and a 1.14-mile test tunnel in Hawthorne, California.
The LVCC loop line will continue to expand in the future. According to the plan, the Vegas Loop will run through the entire Las Vegas in the future, with a total length of 46.67 kilometers.
However, judging from the operating LVCC loop line, Musk’s tunnel concept is not a little bit reduced. Except for cars and tunnels, nothing else can be seen. It can only be said that it is a version that is even worse than the beggar version.
In fact, the same problem existed when the California tunnel was tested in 2018. At that time, the test vehicle also traveled autonomously, with a speed of 79 kilometers in the tunnel, and there were still uneven road conditions. The effect is not as imagined.
Musk believes that there are two main reasons: First, the construction time is insufficient. Second, the autonomous driving technology is not mature enough, mainly V2X.
According to Musk’s explanation, the current V2X technology is not mature enough, the distance between vehicles in the tunnel is maintained, and the information linkage between vehicles in the event of an accident cannot be solved. As long as these problems exist, automatic driving cannot be applied to the tunnel plan.
Now that more than 3 years have passed, the story of California has moved to Las Vegas, and the problem is still exactly the same here. Looking at it now, it is estimated that the tunnel “fantasy” that Musk has pigeonged on for several years will have to be piggybacked.
How do users comment?
- Seeing the traffic jam in Musk’s tunnel, the first thing most netizens think of is safety.
- For example, in such a narrow space, what should I do if the vehicle catches fire?
There is also a group of supporters who use data to illustrate the problem: although the tunnel is congested, it is already much more efficient than mainstream public underground transportation. Finally, Musk also said that the future tunnel plan of the boring company will land in China.