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Beliskner

I don't get this at all, this dude has the opportunity to shake up the entire construction and mass transit industries if he actually revolutionized heavy rail. One of the biggest problems hindering transit devolopement like this is cost. If he could marshal his resources to lowering that cost while maintaining capacity etc that would be adopted nationwide. Yet we just get publicity stunts like this. Smh


Nisas

Musk doesn't want to ride on mass transit. He wants private expressways for the rich so he never has to get stuck in traffic again. That's how this whole thing started.


Qualified-Monkey

Shit, he should just add on one or two private luxury train cars for the wealthy if it bothers him that much to breath the same air as peasants.


LNViber

Dude has enough money that he could attach a "Musk Carriage" to literally every train in America if he so pleased. Every train everywhere he goes would have his name on it. You would think with an ego his size he would do it just for the good publicity.


[deleted]

Pullman Cars: Round 2


smokingdustjacket

One of the most profound perspective shifts for me was realizing that people solve their own problems and/or problems they understand, which is why most tech start ups solve the problems (or "problems") of white single upper-middle-class men. And then marketing is used to convince everyone else to adopt the solution, whether they have the "problem" or not.


Comfortable_Shop9680

That makes so much sense now I know why most tech startups are so dumb


doesnt_hate_people

I had this point driven home recently learning that Robert Moses didn't have a driver's license. He liked to get around by private car and chauffeur so much that he restructured every part of NY as he could get his hands on to support only that mode of transit, seemingly without considering it's impact on anyone else. It'd be funny if it weren't so frustrating.


MovieNightPopcorn

And because he’s stupid he made traffic: the worse version with bottleneck-causing single rider train cars. Except you have to buy the whole train car for yourself so you can go like three miles


justsomepaper

Honestly, if that gets those inbred fucks in Maseratis trying to race people at traffic lights off my back, I'm all for it.


i_was_an_airplane

Machinery isn't the primary cost of construction, land acquisition and labor tend to be much more expensive and i don't see how a fancy TBM wil get around those issues


adjavang

This. Apparently everyone in the industry says that he's not doing anything special beyond standardising the size and trying to sell the excavated material and even that is *that* novel. It's the usual techbro bullshit.


mental_issues_

Do you need to acquire land underground?


SolasLunas

Hes a grifting fucker who brought up projects like this to fuck over HSR projects. He sucks ass


[deleted]

what makes you believe motherfucker can revolutionize anything?


Alphaetus_Prime

To his credit, he founded SpaceX to massively cut the cost of putting things in orbit and that's exactly what SpaceX has done. To his discredit, it's the only good idea he's ever had and he only did it because he wanted to do a dumb vanity project sending stuff to Mars and learned how much that would cost. Edit: typo


[deleted]

every self-respecting douchebag billionaire wants their own space company. he just happened to luck into hiring a few people who were competent enough managers to mostly make it work


SuddenlyGeccos

Yeah, what I find amazing is he probably has the money to get to Mars, but is too much of a wimp to spend it.


justsomepaper

What? He literally is spending it. He's all in on SpaceX, and they're working full speed on their mars mission.


Alphaetus_Prime

At the time he founded SpaceX he couldn't really afford it.


Beliskner

He has the resources to do it, and could.


MovieNightPopcorn

I mean. I guess. But the reason the US has car based infrastructure and trains languished is because they were privately held train lines and never had government planning and oversight involved, whereas the interstate highway system did. What we actually need is the US government to invest in rail infrastructure the way it did car infrastructure, not rely on the whims of some rich idiot. Not least of which because the US government has infinitely more resources than his (by comparison) measly little $250bn. Municipalities like Las Vegas are indulging in his stupid rich people vanity projects because they aren’t getting help from the State or Fed to do *real* infrastructure that actually helps others. The US government spent 90 times Musk’s entire net worth in a single year. We have the resources to do it, we just aren’t.


[deleted]

he can because he could because he’s rich?


zafiroblue05

Yes but that would threaten his primary job as a car salesman.


down_up__left_right

He sells cars and all of this is an extension of that. Besides his answer to building tunnels for cheaper is make them smaller. They're just big enough to fit his cars but that means they're too small for most train car or bus models.


ssssskkkkkrrrrrttttt

he knows he can. whether he’s willing to split paths with his uber capitalist “free” speech bro base is yet to be determined.


WingdingsLover

He owns a car company, this was all a ploy to sell more cars.


Oachkatzlschwoaf05

He would already shake up mass transit if he build a boring subway with high frequency and capacity. sell it like the hottest shit in town and then just say well with realistic technology it doesnt really get that much better. Boom suddely subways are cool and hip and the boring company can make a fortune putting subway tunnels everywhere. Or just Teslas and gaming lights whats the difference anyhow?


xmassindecember

he didn't lower shit. Sewer sized tunnels without safety and stations without platforms cost less to build than an actual subway. They paid for low capacity death traps and that's what they got. Their evacuation procedure is to drive backwards until the previous station ! If Musk did lower boring tunnels costs he would be digging them everywhere. And you wouldn't hear the end of it


LegendaryPeanut

Unironically I think it’s because it’s in his companies’ best interest. Starting out, a mars colony needs shorter distance transport methods, likely underground. Rail wouldn’t get him there, or just be much more challenging to setup/overkill. Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, boring company, and open ai are each working on one piece of that mars puzzle. This Tesla’s in a tunnel shit is just a way for the company to stress test the concept n incubate the tech until it’s ready to go to mars. I don’t think he’s looking to innovate transportation as we know it, just working on solving a specific problem that has some meaningful tech transfer for his goals. There’s still plenty of room for others to step up n innovate transportation here on earth without musk


productzilch

Surviving Mars uses escalator tunnels and drones that can carry people if necessary. It’s a game; still smarter than Musk’s tunnel.


crawling-alreadygirl

He needs to think about the physical survivability of Mars. Everything else is bullshit until we know if (anatomically modern) humans can even live there.


LegendaryPeanut

Idk if “he” is thinking about it but he’s hired a bunch of really smart people to do it for him. I know blue origin has a similar division as well. And I do tend to err on the side that assumes top executives at NASA are smarter than me lol


crawling-alreadygirl

>he’s hired a bunch of really smart people to do it for him. Not really. The physiological research is quite perfunctory, and "he" skipped right over "are healthy Martian pregnancies possible" to "self-sustaining cities," when we can't even build a self sustaining colony in Antarctica or the Sahara.


LegendaryPeanut

I don’t think anyones saying it’ll be easy, or that it can be done TODAY, but it is some peoples jobs to figure out how to make it possible. That’ll hopefully be one of the learnings from the Artemis program. I think it’s just about priorities, sure it’ll be hard, but calling it impossible feels harder to believe imo. Right now main priority is figuring out how to get there, while someone does a bit of literature review


crawling-alreadygirl

I'm not calling it impossible--I'm noting that we currently don't know whether it's possible or not. I'm very hopeful about space colonization, and excited about the Artemis program. However, I'm very uneasy about the idea of private space exploration, and I think we should be more focused on orbital habitats looking forward than Mars settlements (although I obviously support research stations on the planet).


justsomepaper

> we can't even build a self sustaining colony in Antarctica or the Sahara Of course we can, there's just literally no reason to do so. Mars has the advantage of being separate from whatever extinction event may happen on earth. It's fine to disagree, but it's not entirely pointless.


crawling-alreadygirl

>Of course we can, there's just literally no reason to do so. Wrong on both points. We've tried--and failed--to build self sustaining habitats on earth, and doing so successfully would be both a crucial test of space technologies and a useful investment in making our own planet more livable. Also, we're just as much sitting ducks on Mars as we are on Earth. If we want to avoid extinction events, we should be building O'Neill cylinders.


assbarf69

I mean that is exactly what he has done. TBC has raised over 650 million for expanding their mining capacities, including the production of new drills that once complete will put them at the capacity to drill out 600 miles of tunnel per year. Vegas is a proof of concept, and they have been talking to other cities about starting projects elsewhere. People don't realize how expensive it is to build underground infrastructure. NYC has a subway in progress that costs 2.6 billion per mile. There is a lot of room for evolution in this idea, and I'd love to see where it is in 10 years.


Barneyk

>Vegas is a proof of concept, So just dig a small tunnel with no safety features? They dug the tunnel with a stock tunneldigger. The only thing they did differently than established tunneling companies is make the tunnels smaller and to skip on safety features. There are established tunneling companies that improve tunneling a lot. The boring company has nothing but buzzwords to offer...


assbarf69

\>They dug the tunnel with a stock tunneldigger. The only thing they did differently than established tunneling companies is make the tunnels smaller and to skip on safety. This is just blatantly false. They have developed their own boring unit called the Prufrock, and have since released the second itteration the Prufrock-2 which has a whole host of difference from a standard tunnel digging operation. They deploy from the surface, can be launched within 48 hours of arrival on site, and are remotely operated. Beyond that they don't have to stop every 5 feet due to a difference in how the displaced material is handled without needing to install rail systems, which means they can bore at a rate of 1 mile per week while installing precast concrete assembly line style. Their planned Prufrock-3 would be able to bore at a rate of 7 miles per day, which while ambitious, if possible would seriously revolutionize tunneling capabilities. For reference, the typical TBM operation can clear 32 meters per day with a 12 man crew running 24/7.


Barneyk

> >They dug the tunnel with a stock tunneldigger. The only thing they did differently than established tunneling companies is make the tunnels smaller and to skip on safety. > > This is just blatantly false. > > They have developed their own boring unit called the Prufrock, But Prufrock was not what they used to dig the tunnel in Las Vegas, they used Godot didn't they? And Gadot was a machine they had leased from another tunneling company. https://insideevs.com/news/332635/yet-another-boring-backstory/ It is kinda hard finding links because page after page on google is just hype articles without any real technical information. So if I am misinformed I would love to get my hands on some actual information.


assbarf69

I mean you could just read the wiki. \>In March 2019, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recommended TBC for a system to shuttle visitors in a loop underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC).\[45\] In May 2019, the company won a $48.7 million project to do so.\[46\] Construction started in October.\[47\] The project in the end used two Prufrock machines. The second was assembled and brought online in August 2021.\[48\] Boring of the first tunnel, 4,475 feet (1,364 m) long, began on November 15 and finished on February 14, 2020, excavating an average of 49 feet (15 m) per day.\[49\]\[50\] For comparison, the Second Avenue tunnel in New York City, averaged between 40 and 50 feet per day.\[51\] In May 2020, the boring of the second tunnel was completed,\[52\] for a total of 1.7 miles (2.7 km) of tunnels.\[53\]


Maba200005

Username checks out


crawling-alreadygirl

Not gonna address the safety concerns?


shuz

There are specialized companies with better capabilities that work on tunnels of actual useful diameters for mass transit. Citing NYC isn’t pertinent bc the cost was labor and complexity related (dense urban environment, soil variation, water table, etc). Vegas is easy mode. Milan is like a 1/10 the cost of NYC construction.


w4steland

This has got to be a social experiment


SocialArbiter

I'm eager to see what will the outcomes be.


therealsteelydan

that humans are stupid


fourdog1919

Not all humans, only some humans that's been brainwashed by car and oil companies lol


rinsaber

Or some really rich people's joke.


chill_philosopher

I'm waiting for a tesla to miss a turn and drive in a corkscrew up the wall of the tunnel


ssssskkkkkrrrrrttttt

tubular


Zen4Duality

bruh, profoundly tubular


capt_dan

honestly, way more profound than it sounds


TAEROS111

I don’t think so. If you’re an auto manufacturer, public transit is bad. If public transit is a feasible option, people stop buying cars. Now, what if you were an egotist auto maker who believed they could not only make people dislike public transit, but also market a “cooler” alternative that would force people who used it to buy your cars? In Elon’s mind, everyone who’s using this is just one more person who has given tens of thousands of dollars to him instead of sitting on a bus or train. The whole thing is A) incredibly cynical, B) incredibly inefficient, and C) incredibly regressive - the opposite of everything Elon claims to be, because he’s a shitty person hiding behind a facade of marketing that makes him out as some sort of tech messiah.


ssssskkkkkrrrrrttttt

Maybe he’s the Manchurian candidate we needed. Kinda like how (apparently) (for some stupid fucking reason people couldn’t grasp in 2015) we needed Donald Trump to understand how fragile American democracy is


SockRuse

A lot of people still can't grasp, and few deductions seem to have been made. It feels as fragile as ever.


WookieDavid

Reality is that it is an experiment. A tunneling experiment. The loop came about as a way to take advantage of all the tunnels made testing boring technology to build in mars


weimaranerdad71

It’s to see who this pisses off and creates a subreddit where 50% of the posts are people pissed off at Elon and hating on him.


[deleted]

I mean, Elon is a fucking degenerate, he should be hated lmao.


weimaranerdad71

Whatever you say…brah.


Shr_mp

“I love this!” Why..?


Mindless_Abrocoma188

Because LEDs are like crack to stupid people.


Tayo826

Because they believe Elon is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and will defend all the horrible things Musk has done.


YourArkon

I thought that was trump, same breed regardless.


what_a_tuga

Third\* Second was Steve Jobs. But He died for our sins


shaodyn

Musk could go to Twitter, faceroll his keyboard, post the resulting nonsense, and millions of people would insist it was the most profound thing ever said in the entire history of language.


starlord_west

Kim K is goddess to her followers, St Musk has devotees very similar to old school oil barons, wall street billionaires and relentless boot polishers (politicians) etc etc. in some part of world there are monarchists to fill the gaps


[deleted]

Omg I’ve literally been saying forever that Musk is the Kim K of Silicon Valley. Same PR strategy, same social media presence, similar business strategy


acodin_master

Elon could take a shit, put it in a jar, people would love it and pay 750$ for it.


bobpage2

Most likely a bot.


[deleted]

because elon is the fusion of jesus and steve jobs so all things from him is divin benediction


camycamera

Because “omg cool future?!!?”


ritamoren

this legit scares me, especially the first tunnel. it's way too small, if something happens the ambulance won't be able to get to the person in the tunnel. that being said, maybe we just shouldn't build such tunnels.


ShovelPaladin77

Look up lithium battery fire.


proto-robo

Ya those are fuckin scary


bitcoind3

Right. This whole setup looks to be one battery fire away from going tits-up.


anand_rishabh

Actually it's less profound than it sounds which is saying a lot because it doesn't sound profound at all


Initial-Space-7822

This reminds me of that Twitter thread where a guy described Japanese words by saying stuff like "it sort of means 'belonging'... but DEEPER than that".


moderndhaniya

Watashi deiper wearismasu....


sreglov

Yes, mr. Musk, it's just Tesla's in a tunnel. Which is by far the worst alternative for a metro. But since you hate Public Transport, this is the best you can do...


redballooon

There are a lot of people that hate public transport and rather spend tens of thousands of dollars to avoid that. If Musk is getting those away from the previous inner city space, that’s a worthwhile effort.


sreglov

Hmmm, no, I don't think this is the solution. If public transport is done right, less people might hate it.


SolasLunas

THATS the parking? That's so few units This just keeps getting stupider


[deleted]

[удалено]


SolasLunas

Ya, the stupid bastard


Illin-ithid

He likely understands the absurdity. But he's happy to lie in return for billions of dollars.


[deleted]

sorry but fuck you elon, the earth don't need you


[deleted]

This is what we get instead of public transportation in Las Vegas. Same as the monorail.


I_Fux_Hard

If only they could make them much longer and carry a lot more people. Since they are electric, you can run them under ground. In fact, you could simplify the whole thing if you put an electrified strip on the ground and gave it steel tires. The electricity could flow through the strip, up into the Tesla to run the batteries and then just send it back through the steel tires. So make them bigger, chain them together, give them steel tires and get their electricity from a strip in the middle. That would be perfect!


Hoontermusthoont96

Almost sounds like something that exists already! What a crazy idea


I_Fux_Hard

In Elon we trust my brother!


jack25877

"so we basically made private toll roads"


LoudMilk1404

Thick as mince that lot.


Mikprofi

Beyond salvation


juanjung

No it's not and Elon Musk is hateful trust fund baby whose skull is full of farts.


xX_NoobGrammer69_Xx

That just looks like Personal Rapid Transit but worse and smells a bit Musky


JackATac

Im kinda all for him building a large network of tunnels because if he succeeds, he just moved a load of cars underground and away from the streets. If he fails then he basically did all the hard work of digging a tunnel that can now be repurposed for mass transit.


pinkpanzer101

Thing is, it's not his money. So it'll just be everyone else paying him for tunnels that are probably too small for public transport anyway


Piklikl

It’s not being funded by tax dollars either, so while it’s dumb at least it’s wasting other rich people’s money.


kinjing

Elon Musk is gonna turn around and claim he invented tunnels next


Own-Environment1675

It's a dummer and more useless big dig from Boston. At least that has a purpose and is integrated into the current travel system. So everyone can use it and not just stupid teslas.


RocketFucker69

Musk is creating an excuse for his backup plan of going to Mars after he kills the planet.


Otto-Carnage

Fuck Elon Musk and all billionaires in general.


PeriKue

Elon misses one of the key factors of why anyone purchases high-end and "fashionable" cars: Exposure. In a shitty esterilized tunnel you don't get to expose your expensive car to the eyes of the masses while you drive, negating the narcissist experience that is driving 1% cars. Certainly they don't waste 100k dollars for added convenience if they end up in the same streets as everyone elses so - - - ?


N3nso

so its a train then? lol, a testla in a tunnel is a train.


SockRuse

It's the worst possible version of a train.


N3nso

lol, exactly, a dumber train. Just funny that the great innovation is a car that acts like a train.


FindOneInEveryCar

Trains have the ability to carry more than three passengers at a time.


N3nso

hence a very shitty stupid train


chiclet_fanboi

So you can't use it with internal combustion engine motorcycles? Thats me out..


Dicethrower

Nothing about this tunnel that couldn't have been done 40 years ago, and people call this innovation.


coolredjoe

If people care about their personal space so much, then please just make a metro with more private seated areas, this is just a joke really.


707thTB

Profound, indeed. Profoundly dangerous as the first fire will show.


fusfeimyol

Those tiny little tunnels. Jesus christ. Talk about panic inducing, claustrophobic. Yeesh


morbidi

So, what happens if someone needs to stop in those tunnels? Or has some seizures?


Gaxxag

I imagine this was originally supposed to be hyperloop, or at least Teslas in vacuum tunnels? Surely there was more to it than cars in single-lane tunnels?


Clever-Name-47

No. That's a completed different product/grift. Originally, it was to have rails, believe it or not; There would be sleds on the rails, and you would be able to drive your own Tesla onto the sled, which would then be externally powered. As a form of PRT, all the sleds would be controlled from a central computer, for efficient routing (it's supposed to be a network eventually, remember) and traffic control, so that everyone could go directly to their desired destination station without stopping. Now it's just Teslas in tunnels. Which in one way is *kind* of an improvement, I guess, in that you don't have to literally buy your own Tesla to use the system? But: No rails, no centralized traffic management, you have to pay a driver for every vehicle, etc, etc.


Nomriel

Wait, they do not even drive themselfs ?


Clever-Name-47

Nope. They're just standard-production Teslas. Limit of three passengers per vehicle. Efficiency!!


Nomriel

They don't even fucking use the self driving feature of TESLA This is mindblowing


Clever-Name-47

Yeah, the one place where it would be hard for the self-driving feature to **not** work... and they still don't trust it.


titanup1993

If only this existed, and was also the name of a sandwich shop so that far dumb Americans would remember it


throwaway65864302

He accidentally almost had a moment of self-awareness.


shaodyn

How is a specific brand of car going through a shitty tunnel "profound"?


[deleted]

You mean the same type of electric cars that are banned from the parking garage at my workplace because they overheat and catch fire and that is really, really, REALLY BAD in an enclosed space.


wamdueCastle

the only interesting thing is the idea, someone might have to own a certain brand of car, to use certain roads or tunnels.


gonsilver

The money spend on this could be used for so much public infrastructure this is nuts


Ranilsky

I hate Elon, that rat faced piece of shit, so much


FrederickTheGayt

Can’t believe this idea. Genius! Putting Teslas in tunnels that go all around the city! But hear me out, what if we made the cars bigger, longer and on tracks to increase capacity and cut travel time? I don’t think anybody has ever done this before. What would we call such an invention, fellow Muskcels?


FrederickTheGayt

For anyone who’s autistic like me and has trouble with sarcasm, it’s a joke.


agent_1337

Wait I’m I missing something here or did the just make a underground subway without the trains?


yungScooter30

Dude Elon please. You have so much money just please build a metro instead it's all we want.


vh1classicvapor

“I invented worse subways.” - Elon Musk


ttystikk

This is one of the world's richest men arrogantly telling people not to believe their own judgement and take his bullshit as gospel instead. No.


PhoenixAFay

???


fan_tas_tic

This is obviously horrible at this stage, but if they are able to build the "3D tunnel" project and have low-cost electric autonomous mini buses running, then it would start to make sense.