Elon Musk's The Boring Company Wants to Build an Underground Transit to Florida, Calling it 'Tesla in a Tunnel'

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 03 July 2021, 11:07 am

Elon Musk's The Boring Company is looking into building an underground transit system to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Boring Company is Musk's tunneling venture, even calling the concept 'Tesla in a tunnel.'

Elon Musk's Tunneling Company Pitches Project

Mayor Dean J. Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale wrote on his Twitter that they'd received a proposal from The Boring Company to build an underground transit loop between the downtown area and the beach.

Mayor Trantalis added that the project is called The Las Olas Loop and that it represents an innovative and unprecedented approach to addressing the town's traffic congestion and transit needs.

Despite publicly announcing the pitch, Mayor Trantalis said it is not a done deal yet, according to The Verge.

Also Read: Elon Musk Eyes 'Boring Company' To Reduce Traffic Via Underground Tunnels

The Boring Company does not have much experience yet. Founded in 2016, the company has only dug three tunnels.

The first was a test tunnel in Los Angeles, California, and the other two were 0.8-mile tunnels underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada.

The three tunnels have yet to be proven out as a functional transit system.

Musk's original idea for The Boring Company was to create an underground transit system for high-frequency autonomous electric sleds capable of carrying dozens of people.

But that idea was dismissed in favor of a system that can only accommodate individual sleds that can carry a couple of people at a time.

Nonetheless, Musk was able to successfully impress numerous city officials with his concept of Teslas ferrying passengers through its neon-lit tunnels.

Aside from its pitch to Fort Lauderdale, The Boring Company has also proposed an underground transit in Miami, Florida, with a $30 million loop system budget.

The company's previous project, such as the 35-mile tunnel from Washington, D.C to Baltimore, and a loop system in Chicago, Illinois, has been canceled.

According to the officials in Fort Lauderdale, The Boring Company reached out to them earlier this year to talk about underground alternatives to the construction of a high-rise commuter rail bridge over the New River.

The town said in a statement that the underground transit loop would provide faster and more efficient access between the downtown area and the beach and solve the ever-growing traffic problem in the streets.

Other details regarding the Fort Lauderdale pitch, such as the length of the tunnel and the total cost, have not been revealed. The town says that state law prohibits the release of the plan's specifics until the competitive process is concluded.

The City Commission of Florida is scheduled to vote on whether to accept the proposal. If the proposal is not accepted, other firms can come forward and pitch their ideas.

Pushing for Wider Tunnels

According to Bloomberg, The Boring Company wants to create tunnels that are 21 feet in diameter, almost twice the size of the 12-foot tunnels the company has built so far. The latest size pitch could accommodate at least two shipping containers side by side.

The Boring Company claimed that the new system could transport 50,000 passengers per hour as Musk wants to solve "soul-destroying traffic" in cities.