Ten years ago, after complaining that traffic was \u2018driving him nuts\u2019, Musk\u2019s Boring Company began building underground tunnels to ease congestion on the roads. Did he overpromise and underdeliver?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another blindingly bright day in Las Vegas but I\u2019m 30ft underground and strapped in for a rocket ride to the future. Actually, it\u2019s a Tesla ride to the future, and not a self-driving one. And it\u2019s pretty slow \u2013 my driver tells me the speed limit down here is 30mph. It\u2019s also pretty short: the journey is over in a matter of minutes. In fact, the Vegas Loop is a pretty underwhelming experience: a brief trundle down a white-walled tunnel only slightly larger than the vehicle itself, lined by strips of LEDs that change colour every few seconds, in an attempt to inject some Vegas glitz. I\u2019d been hoping to ask other Loop-riders what they made of the experience, but \u2026 there aren\u2019t any. I\u2019m the only person here.<\/p>\n
This is not the futuristic transport solution Elon Musk originally promised. When he first announced<\/a> this innovative technology in 2017, it was accompanied by sci-fi visuals showing a car pulling over from the street traffic on to an elevator platform, which then descended into a network of tunnels and whizzed along on an \u201celectric skate\u201d at 200km\/h (124mph). \u201cThere\u2019s no real limit to how many levels of tunnel you can have \u2026 so you can alleviate any arbitrary level of urban congestion,\u201d Musk said. A few months earlier, with characteristic edgelordly nonchalance, Musk had announced on Twitter<\/a>: \u201cTraffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging \u2026\u201d Followed shortly after by: \u201cI am actually going to do this.\u201d He did, and he named it the Boring Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/7749225bdf8dd9926b29bac755d5119b244ce219\/0_0_5000_4000\/master\/5000.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=78225f27a34b2c688869bbbf82f5ad19\" "\\"\u2018A")
Ten years ago, after complaining that traffic was \u2018driving him nuts\u2019, Musk\u2019s Boring Company began building underground tunnels to ease congestion on the roads. Did he overpromise and underdeliver?