Elon Musk's tunnel transit video is mesmerizing, may make you sick
The CEO's newest venture, The Boring Company, is already testing the high-speed sleds that could one day zip drivers to their destinations underground.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Elon Musk is very serious about getting down to boring. Late last year the Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced he was creating a new venture, The Boring Company, to start digging traffic-tackling tunnels under Los Angeles. Last month he showed off a concept video explaining how it could work, and on Friday he shared another video showing a test of an actual high-speed sled moving through a tunnel.
Before you click play below, be advised there are lots of strobe-ing lights involved and it's a little difficult to watch even if you aren't inclined to be affected by such things.
As Musk explained on stage at TED recently, vehicles would be lowered from street level into the tunnel system and then be hurled around the underground aboard the sled, which Musk also refers to as a "skate."
The CEO posted the video to Instagram.
"This is a test run of our electric sled that would transport cars at 125 mph (200 km/h) through the tunnels, automatically switching from one tunnel to the next," Musk wrote. "Would mean Westwood to LAX in 5 mins."
Musk also shared a photo of the company's first actual boring machine being assembled. He says the machine will be "a few hundred feet long when complete."
We also get a look at one of the cutter heads of the boring machine slowly rotating. Musk says he hopes to "jack up" this "standard industry speed" by at least 10 times or more.
But the most intriguing post from Musk's Friday morning sharing burst on Instagram is probably this simple one that just shows a tunnel entrance with some carnival-style lighting:
It's interesting because of the caption: "First tunnel for The Boring Company begins ... Full length of first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman Oaks. Future tunnels will cover all of greater LA."
The hyperactive entrepreneur isn't just laying out his overall ambition here, he's setting up his pitch to government officials and perhaps to investors.
Typically, you can't just start digging miles of tunnels under one of the world's great megalopolises that also happens to lie in a seismically active region without checking in with city hall first. When he does make the pitch to officials and politicians, Musk will surely be showing these proofs of concept again, along with the public excitement they're generating right now.
The pitch almost writes itself: clearly, there's nothing boring about The Boring Company.
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