The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Board of Directors approved a contract with The Boring Company to design and construct a twin-tunnel Loop system for the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). The project is currently under construction. LVCC Loop will provide fast and convenient transportation for convention and trade show attendees across the LVCC campus.
This project should be completed before the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2021.
High-occupancy AEVs (autonomous electric vehicles) use a modified Tesla Model X chassis to transport up to 16 passengers with both sitting and standing room.
Future expansions to augment LVCC Loop can include service extensions to McCarran International Airport, hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, downtown Las Vegas, Las Vegas Stadium, and, in the long term, Los Angeles.
Loop system extensions will operate at speeds of up to 155 mph. AEVs, which will be capable of moving between the LVCC Loop and Loop system extensions, will adjust speeds upon entering the LVCC Loop system.
SOURCES- Boring Company
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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I wonder if a software update for a regular tesla will let your car drive you through the tunnel to it’s destination?
😉
Ha ha. Of course.
Maybe the “powerful taxi lobby” has been badly damaged by Uber and lyft?
No a milliwatt reactor is far too small. You want a megawatt or two at least.
That, of course, was the biggest major plot hole of “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”.
If you can make underground habitats and farms on the moon, then you can make them on Earth at a much lower cost with access to unlimited water and air. Even the middle of the Sahara would still be more hospitable.
No, this isn’t just Model X with Wheel guides. They’ve given up on the wheel guides as unnecessary. Model X cant hold 16 people if you ran them through a wood chipper first. High Occupancy AEVs are pretty much the Pod concept they showed. They’re building it for this on an X skateboard but the Pickup skateboard out in a couple years will be better.
I agree. For sure a mW reactor is the only answer, and I remember watching a video at one of the last Mars Society conventions given by the main engineer designing kW reactors for future NASA missions. He said it would be easy to scale it up to mW size. And there would certainly no problem getting one to Mars on a Starship. My comment above about the area of solar panels was just to get some comments going on it. Thanks for your reaction.
And, that is a pretty safe bet.
These tunnels are very near the surface and certainly within the Water Table. I would bet that a single Boring tunnel has a greater water table impact than all the wells fracked in West Texas this year.
Fair point. For that matter, you could like on Earth in the same way it is proposed to live on Mars, in the presently uninhabitable parts of the planet (deserts, polar regions, etc.) Hermetically sealed habitats, could be built with tunnels, etc.
I’m talking about a bigger subject. How the dirt is dug before launching with mass driver is yet to be refined. The orbiting “holes” are rotating habs built from it. Thus the thought relating to living in “holes” on Mars.
The best technology for boring is tunnel boring machine. It bores essentially in a straight line, or at with very small angles off axis.
If all you need from the planet is a place to dig the “hole” you will live in, why not dig one big hole and make many many orbiting “holes” out of it? After the initial mass driver insertion into orbit, everything else is FAR easier. Especially the correct or desired g force, delivered to the places desired at any amount. For construction and manufacturing. In the sunlight, or the cold dark of Space, as desired. Not to mention vacuum for material processing.
the local powerful taxi lobby was against the original monorail. Hence what we got was a worthless Disneyland ride that doesn’t go anywhere you want to go. I suppose they aren’t going to like this either. Anything that gives some the ability to drive Las Vegas blvd (again) without taking both lunch and dinner in your car while stuck in traffic is appreciated.
I have a number of questions about this.
It’s not like it would be that expensive to develop. Basically take the “skateboard” of the Model X, stretch it and design it like a small subway car? The problem with just using a Tesla is personal vehicles are not designed for public transit, so you’re not going to be getting as much throughput
Building cheap tunnels is awesome, but this project has a lot of unrealized potential.
Solar panels are irrelevant. NASA builds planetary reactors. Russia builds planetary reactors. Well, ESA may have nothing nuclear, but NASA may help them in exchange for certain favours. Any planetary (Lunar, Martian, any) operation of any useful scale will be nuclear powered. Two weeks of night on Luna. Planetary dust storms on Mars.
With nuclear, available power is up to 0.5~1MW (Russian design), or at the very least several kW (NASA design). Either way it is sufficient for boring, the difference is productivity. I believe SpaceX will kindly request from NASA and get a planetary nuclear power source when it comes to that.
I like the idea of using it on Mars, but can you imagine the area of solar panels needed?
Essentially, it is a premium subway with Teslas for trains. Now that whole boring story looks rather lively. Others are already deep in the boring business (China, Iran, north Korea), but all those are isolated markets and cases. Also it just beams through that the true goal is “subways” on other planets (not just “Planet Hollywood”). Domes (hello, Mr Zubrin), capsules (hello, NASA) and mud huts (hello, ESA) are for academics and undead space 1.0 relics, while tunnels solve all the otherworldly problems at the cost of delivery of machines. And BFR solves the cost of delivery problems. Well played.
Also there are quite a few private entities who would pay a very pretty penny to have their boring done with complete discretion. Boring company should do well.