About 750 people were lucky enough to get a seat at the Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles’ ritzy Bel Air neighborhood, and were given a look at where billionaire Elon Musk’s Boring Company is headed – And it’ was not in any way boring.
The big item on the agenda was reassuring neighbors who may have had concerns over what Musk called his company’s “totally experimental tunnel.” And about an hour before Thursday’s event, Musk retweeted a Tweet from Metro Los Angeles about work on its proof-of-concept tunnel under Sepulveda Boulevard. “We’ll be partners moving forward,” the statement said.
During the Thursday meeting, Elon Musk showed off his idea of the Loop, a “personalized mass transit” system that would carry 16 people per pod and travel at 150 miles per hour. He explained he wanted to completely reinvent public transportation, saying he doesn’t think his solution for “soul-destroying traffic” is the only one that could work.
Tunnel Time-Lapse from The Boring Company on Vimeo.
Musk said a “theoretical ride could get you from downtown to LA International Airport in eight minutes via a tube.” His projected fare? How about $1 per person. In Musk’s vision of the transportation system, he sees small stations where people could get a ride, each about the size of a single or double parking spot, to alleviate traffic at any one spot.
He definitely doesn’t see “flying cars” as being a good solution. Musk thinks flying cars are too dangerous. “Inevitably, someone’s not going to service their car properly, and they’re gonna drop a hubcap, and it’s gonna guillotine somebody.”
Then there is the problem of flying cars being too noisy. “Like a hurricane…you can’t even fly the quietest helicopter through neighborhoods without bothering people,” he said. Musk’s solution is simple. Instead of taking transportation up three dimensions, he wants to take it down, and that makes sense to the Boring Company, notes Futurism.
The Boring Company Loop
Remember now, this is just an experimental idea, OK? But the Loop will require 2.7 miles of the tunnel running north to south parallel to the Interstate 405 freeway. He assured his audience the Loop will be privately funded and will not be used for public transportation.
Luckily, this time, Musk did not set a timeline for the completion of the Loop, a good move on his part. However, during the discussion, Musk revealed the company has spent the last year digging (or “boring”) tunnels under Los Angeles.
“It’s the only way we can think of to address the chronic traffic issues in major cities,” Musk said at the event. He added that over the 16 years he’s lived in Los Angeles, the I-405 has “varied between the seventh and eighth levels of hell,” blaming the “clotted traffic” for the delays on the tunnel. But, last week, Boring Company announced the first tunnel was nearing c.completion.
Bricks and a snail named Gary
There is a lot more to the Boring Company than just a Loop. Elizabeth Lopatto, who writes for the Verge, like this writer, has been following Musk for years. She got to go to the event on Thursday night and she writes that Musk “might genuinely be more excited about his bricks than Mars”
On the stage, the audience could see what looked like a cinder block, except it was smooth and a light brown color. Sitting atop the cinder block was a small pineapple-shaped aquarium with a snail Musk calls Gary, inside. There is a story behind the prop, though.
Musk believes the fastest boring machine in the world is still ten-times slower than a snail, so according to co-panelist Steve Davis, Musk challenged his team to “At least beat the snail.” However, in order to that, the company will have to come up with some innovative ideas to do continuous mining, or boring, in this case.
But the really exciting thing is that Boring Company has come up with a cool idea for all that dirt being removed – They are compressing the dirt that is removed, along with a little concrete, into bricks. “And then you have bricks that are rated for California seismic loads,” Musk said.
He appeared to be genuinely excited about the bricks, telling the audience they could be sold for “like 10 cents a piece,: adding, “And they’re really great bricks. You can, like, build houses with them and things.” (I just love to listen to Musk. His excitement rubs off on the audience). And believe it or not, he said all this with a straight face.
Musk also wants to create Lego-style bricks in the same way and sell kits so people can build anything from pyramids to temples in their backyards. He said, “It seems like a fun way to spend an afternoon.” But seriously, the company is using the removed dirt to create their own concrete reinforcement segments.
The “Not a Flamethrower” update
It was bound to happen, and yes, someone in the audience asked Musk when the company would deliver its “Not a Flamethrowers.” Musk’s answer: “Deliveries start in two weeks.”
The Boring Company has used some unorthodox methods to raise money, and one of the very first was the Boring Flamethrower. The company raised $7.5 million selling $500 flamethrowers bearing the company logo.
However, shipping companies haven’t been really excited about shipping devices containing propane, so Musk told the audience the company would deliver them. “We’re just going to get some vans and people and deliver it to you,” said Musk.
Actually, it all sounds very exciting and this writer looks forward to seeing the Loop become a reality.
