Musk test tunnel opens! First experience of riding a car: bumpy and bumpy

Sina Technology News Beijing time on the afternoon of December 19th, Elon Musk's 2018 was extremely bumpy, but at least there was a light at the end of his tunnel.

The Tesla CEO said the 1.14-mile-long tunnel is the first step in solving deep-rooted urban traffic problems. In 2016, Musk, already busy between two high-profile companies, founded a new company called the Boring Company to try to solve traffic congestion problems by digging tunnels. Some initially thought it was just a joke. Two years and $40 million later, Musk showed off a working test tunnel on Tuesday for his instant innovation machine.

What is it like to walk through Musk’s tunnel? Stumbles, but this is also a consistent feature of Musk's entrepreneurship.

A reporter from the "Washington Post" was fortunate enough to ride in Tesla's Model X and experience Musk's test tunnel at the press conference. The tunnel is about 12 feet in diameter and is located 40 feet underground, parallel to a street near SpaceX headquarters. The interior of the tunnel is relatively spacious and can accommodate a car. Car-mounted elevators transport passengers and vehicles between the ground and tunnels.

The elevator is hidden behind the former Los Vegas Kitchen Cabinets store, now a preserved Boring building. The reporters walked through a gate and entered a platform about the size of two standard parking spaces. Then descend to the tunnel entrance. The scene was spectacular enough to make Batman jealous.

The Tesla the reporter was riding in was equipped with a pair of extra guide wheels, which stuck out like ears in the front. The guide wheels are aligned with the edge of the tunnel, turning the passenger electric SUV into something very similar to a car on a track.

When the light in front of the tunnel turned green, the car immediately flew out like a roller coaster. Because it is so close to the tunnel wall, the car feels faster; the white paint and the blue lights at the top of the tunnel make the journey full of music.

The Tesla car you are riding in has the automatic driving function, and it is indeed in automatic driving mode to a large extent during the driving process - automatically navigates and adjusts the speed when the guide wheels are locked - but it still requires constant supervision by a trained driver behind the wheel.

Even though there is automatic driving in the process, the whole experience is still very bumpy. Even though our top speed was only 49 mph, the car was still scraping against the concrete at the bottom of the tunnel.

At a press conference, Musk said that the Boring Company did not have enough time to level the concrete foundation at the bottom of the test tunnel because it caused constant bumps during the ride. Musk went on to say that once the company figures out how to effectively level the concrete foundations, the vehicles could travel through the tunnels at top speeds of 155 miles per hour.

The adjusting wheel system is the latest mechanism for tunnels. Musk has mentioned that this mechanism can allow vehicles to travel through his tunnels at high speeds. He envisioned cars in the tunnel running on electric skateboards. But in the end, Musk believes that the adjustable wheel system is more cost-effective and can be applied to a wider variety of vehicles - as long as those cars are electric and have self-driving capabilities.

What makes the electric car pioneer and rocket inventor such a tunneling expert? Musk has always believed that the Boring Company could reduce the cost of tunneling projects and significantly speed up the process by making some relatively simple adjustments to the way traditional tunnel boring machines work. "No Nobel Prize-level innovation is required." ” he said.

The Boring Company’s tunnel transportation, known as the “Loop,” is designed to alleviate urban traffic congestion. Unlike a traditional subway or train system, Musk said the Loop's main lines won't stop at stations from time to time. Instead, they have a series of tributaries that carry passengers in their vehicles to their destinations, where they are then conveyed via elevators to surface streets.

The cost of the ride has not yet been determined, but Musk said that if you take a public shuttle bus, the cost will be about $1 per trip; if you take a private car through the tunnel, it will be about $4.

The company is planning to build a tunnel to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and another connecting downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport. The company also plans to build a tunnel between Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Musk said cities and potential investors are very interested in these projects. But the digging hasn't been all plain sailing: Last month, the company had to cancel another test tunnel project in Los Angeles after community groups filed a lawsuit challenging the government's proposed exemption of the company from the environmental review process. (Mur)