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The Boring Company's launch event for LA tunnel livestreaming now
- Thread starter Sectorseven
- Start date
He's such an inspiration.
In my opinion, he's one of the few contemporary 'geniuses' that we have.
Kudos to him for creating this company. Hope his plans are successful.
In my opinion, he's one of the few contemporary 'geniuses' that we have.
Kudos to him for creating this company. Hope his plans are successful.
Well let's see if this doesn't crash and burn like all the other radical and new ways to revolutionize mass transit.
How does adding a new convoluted step ripe for bottleneck issues actually make things more efficient?
Yes and I have the same concerns and questions since this was first announced
The extra wheels bit sounds even worse than the skate idea. Not to mention I'm not sure how they expect this to work for anyone not driving an electric car that can maintain 150 mph. The tunneling machine and dirt bricks sounds cool though.
I'm pretty sure the idea is that you need an electric autonomous capable car that can maintain 150mph, otherwise you stick to the soul crushing traffic on your current freeway for free.
Going 150MPH in an electric car will drain the battery pretty fast, but I guess factors like wind resistance aren't as much of an issue down there.
The tunnels make sense for bypassing common SoCal chokepoints like the sepulveda pass, the 10 during rush hour, the Orange Crush, the 57/60 mashup, etc.
The tunnels make sense for bypassing common SoCal chokepoints like the sepulveda pass, the 10 during rush hour, the Orange Crush, the 57/60 mashup, etc.
I hung out with one of the civil engineers working on this a couple weeks back. Probably one of the more fascinating conversations I've had.
Oh and he said Elon is a douche (but respects his vision a great deal).
Oh and he said Elon is a douche (but respects his vision a great deal).
so basically its a privilege tunnel for the rich if it's ever implemented, and doesn't really solve any traffic problems..
Neat.
Not sure if they can idiot-proof it enough that it won't be prone to blockages and breakdowns, though. People have enough trouble with automatic car washes.
Not sure if they can idiot-proof it enough that it won't be prone to blockages and breakdowns, though. People have enough trouble with automatic car washes.
OP
OP
I think if it's viable you'll see China adopt it rather quickly as they have a relatively large number of EVs and are very aggressive with their infrastructure.
Genius or not, I think that, despite all of the issues he has, he's a worthwhile product of our time. I don't even agree with a lot that he says, in fact.
For thos who question this project's mission, it isn't about how successful it is on launch, it is mainly about if the proof of concept can actually work. This is nowhere near finished. Think of this as a way of testing the waters.
At least you'll be traveling at speeds where no foreseeable accident can be avoided! That should allay some of the terror.
The vehicles will the self driving. Above ground, imagine cars crisscrossing lanes without even slowing down. That's the kind of precision we'll see in the future.
It's only for self driving cars. Since that's the future, it should in theory be open to anyone. If it works...
Maybe in several decades to a century. We've still got people driving cars from 20-30 years ago pretty commonly. It will be the same in the 2020s and 30s. For now I'd rather see those billions poured into denser, better-designed cities and cheap, clean public transportation for all. Making a better experience for expensive personal car owners strikes me as vain sci-fi wish fulfillment.
The concrete work done for the "rails" looks like an extremly poor job.
So after his vacuum train pipe dream he wants to dig hundrets of kms of tunnels beneath cities so you can purchase special rail-tires for 300$ for your e-car to drive through a bumpy concrete pipe at a whooping 50km/h?
So after his vacuum train pipe dream he wants to dig hundrets of kms of tunnels beneath cities so you can purchase special rail-tires for 300$ for your e-car to drive through a bumpy concrete pipe at a whooping 50km/h?
I don't see any technical reasons why this idea wouldn't work. The capacity of a single bore tunnel is limited by the headway between vehicles and the turn-out radius (and therefore vehicle speed) of junctions, but underground goes on for ever so hey just build more tunnels!
The reasons this won't work are financial. I do not believe that it is possible to reduce the cost of tunnel boring by orders of magnitude, especially when all the junctions & access points are factored in. In a traditional underground railway, the stations and junctions are the expensive complicated bits, which take much longer to build than the simple tunnels between them.
And this thing will have a *lot* of junctions and "stations" if it's going to work as advertised.
If TBC manages to reduce the cost of bored tunnels, it will be of great use to subway and sewer construction projects all over the world.
The reasons this won't work are financial. I do not believe that it is possible to reduce the cost of tunnel boring by orders of magnitude, especially when all the junctions & access points are factored in. In a traditional underground railway, the stations and junctions are the expensive complicated bits, which take much longer to build than the simple tunnels between them.
And this thing will have a *lot* of junctions and "stations" if it's going to work as advertised.
If TBC manages to reduce the cost of bored tunnels, it will be of great use to subway and sewer construction projects all over the world.
So I was invited to this event.
Basically the tunnel is a $10 mil prototype for the hyper loop that did not deliver at all. Original was supposed to use a platform you drive on that carries your car frome spacex to LAX at approx 150mph. Final design had a retrofitted model X with small trycicle ass lookin wheels juttin out the side of the front wheels which were portrayed as retracting in the presentation but wasn't irl. The pitch was basically "mod your car with these impractical protruding 5th and 6th wheels for a 1 mile tunnel that only goes 40 to 50 mph". At the event guests only could go at 15mph cuz reasons. So the went from a 150mph universal platform to 15mph mod your car with trycicle ass lookin wheels.
At the end of the presentation I shouted "Keep smokin that kush Elon" and his mom(standin in front of me lol) and grimes cracked up and he said "and on that note thanks for comin" or something like that .
Thats my tl;dw of all this.
Basically the tunnel is a $10 mil prototype for the hyper loop that did not deliver at all. Original was supposed to use a platform you drive on that carries your car frome spacex to LAX at approx 150mph. Final design had a retrofitted model X with small trycicle ass lookin wheels juttin out the side of the front wheels which were portrayed as retracting in the presentation but wasn't irl. The pitch was basically "mod your car with these impractical protruding 5th and 6th wheels for a 1 mile tunnel that only goes 40 to 50 mph". At the event guests only could go at 15mph cuz reasons. So the went from a 150mph universal platform to 15mph mod your car with trycicle ass lookin wheels.
At the end of the presentation I shouted "Keep smokin that kush Elon" and his mom(standin in front of me lol) and grimes cracked up and he said "and on that note thanks for comin" or something like that .
Thats my tl;dw of all this.
It doesnt at all deal with traffic problems because it has a huge capacity issue. This can really only be seen as a luxury transport, not meant for everybody.
Want to solve traffic? You need high capacity, quick transportation. High speed trains for example, bus for shorter distances and scooter/bikes for last mile if still too far. High speed trains can carry more than a hundred people to a location in one go (maglev is a better solution). That is the issue with hyperloop and this project, its using the same principles as trains, with a lot less capacity.
I am optimistic about autonomous vehicles, but the level you are speaking of here is not likely going to be in our lifetime.
I watched earlier and thought was that someone trolling him?! Era of course lmao :D
So it's a bus tramway in a tunnel, except vastly more expensive and will completely shutdown when a single vehicle fails.
You are not thinking about the traffic when you get out of the tunnels which may delay the cars in the tunnel because some cars wont be able to leave the area after exiting the tunnels. This is the problem with this project. It can't be used in mass, it's a solution for the luxurious.
Think of it like a train station where people get off and on, except a train station can hold 10s of thousands of people in one go, so there is no bottleneck when people are exiting and entering. If too much foot traffic becomes an issue in a train station, the solution would be to make the station bigger, make trains longer, and make trains faster. The bottleneck for train stations take a long ass time to reach as well.
Knowing this, how will one deal with the traffic bottlenecks of this projects when the car has left the tunnel?
It will likely shut/slow down when cars that have exited the tunnels can not get out of the way due to above traffic constraints.
It's a bad plan for dealing with traffic congestion.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...g-co-drops-one-its-l-tunnel-plans/2135781002/
This is what I was thinking of
This idea looks dumber and dumber with every single update. This is the same exact kind of idea as helicopter taxis, a neat, gimmicky idea for the rich that requires a lot of bespoke infrastructure and engineering, cannot be scaled up, and will be exorbitantly expensive. And it's all because Musk didn't like being sweaty on the subway