Elon Musk seeks approval for Los Angeles transit tunnel
Technology billionaire Elon Musk promised on Thursday that his planned network of tunnels underneath Los Angeles would carry passengers at 100mph for just a dollar per trip, as he launched a local charm offensive for his ambitious new Boring Company transit project.
At a “community event,” the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX said that he would offer local residents free test rides in a 2.7-mile (4.3-kilometer) tunnel that the Boring Company wants to build on the western side of the city.
Tunnels are Mr. Musk’s solution for chronic congestion in cities around the world, but the idea has already raised challenges from some environmental campaigners and neighborhood associations in Los Angeles.
A Boring Company spokesman said that tunneling could begin as soon as the first quarter of next year if the city council approves its permit for a “proof of concept” tunnel at a hearing scheduled for next month.
On Thursday night, Mr. Musk sought to reassure residents that the venture would be safe.
The proof of concept is vital for testing the techniques, economics and public acceptance of a new kind of underground transit system. A spokesperson said the Boring Company hoped to reduce the cost of tunneling from hundreds of millions of dollars to as little as $10 million per mile.
The company is applying expertise honed designing rockets at SpaceX to improve efficiencies in tunnelling underground, taking aim at what Mr. Musk sees as bloated construction companies in the same way that his aerospace venture took on the likes of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
“We are going to figure out how to tunnel fast, safely and at a cost that’s not crazy,” he said, promising a “significant breakthrough” by creating a new kind of “personalized mass transit” system. “But obviously that can only happen with public support.”
Sitting alongside Steve Davis, the former SpaceX engineer who leads day- to- day operations at the Boring Company, and a plastic, pineapple-shaped container housing the company’s mascot, Gary the snail, Mr. Musk explained the project’s benefits and engineering challenges, before answering questions from the audience.
Hundreds of people, a mixture of local residents and Mr. Musk’s acolytes, gathered in a synagogue close to the upscale Bel- Air neighborhood. “You won’t see us, you won’t hear us, you won’t even know we exist,” Mr Davis assured them of the trial construction plan.
Some attendees had been sent tickets after ordering a $500 Boring Company-branded flame-thrower, part of a promotional gambit that raised $ 10 million earlier this year. However, many are still waiting for their merchandise to arrive.
Mr. Musk said that deliveries would start in two weeks, after encountering distribution “challenges” which could only be solved by hand- delivering 50,000 flame-throwers. “I guess they don’t like it if you ship things with propane,” he said. “We will just get some vans and people and deliver it to you.”
Regulatory filings last month indicated that Mr. Musk had invested $100 million of his personal fortune into the Boring Company, alongside $12 million from other early employees.
Today, the company has about 40 employees operating out of a couple of trailers in a car park close to SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, southwest of Los Angeles, where its first test tunnel is nearing completion.
Mr. Musk said on Thursday that he hoped to raise more money from the sale of bricks, at 10 cents each, made from dirt cleared out of its tunnels. “They are really great bricks, super strong, incredibly smooth,” he said. “If we can take the dirt from the tunnel and instead of dumping it somewhere, turn it into something useful. For affordable housing, this could be really compelling.”