Elon Musk’s Tunnel Through L.A. Just Happens To Go From His House To His Office

DooKey

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Fast Company has analyzed the path of the tunnel Elon Musk is boring in Los Angeles and noticed that it just happens to pass right by his home and starts near his SpaceX headquarters. If you think about it this makes perfect sense because he is paying for it himself. Why shouldn't he take advantage of his own creation that will help many others as well? Much ado about nothing if you ask me.

But even if Musk is launching this endeavor out of a sense of altruism, a belief that he alone can save L.A. from its traffic woes, he’s off the mark. An idea, borne out of frustration, to “just start digging,” is not urban planning. Musk is bankrolling his way around a rigorous design and planning processes that could actually lead to a comprehensive fix for the region, and his dream for a six-minute commute could hinder any more viable–albeit less sexy–progress the city is aiming to make.
 
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Ever see what happens to your neighborhood when you build mass transit info it? I have.
 
He's paying for it, then no problem. But its completely consistent with my contention this is an elitist convenience for the tech executives to work in LA and live in SF. Most people will be priced out from even trying it once.
 
Why is this news? This is exactly what I'd do if I had to prototype something that, you know, I was actually inventing and paying for. I wonder what the cheap Mexican Drug Lord version of this technology is going to look like running underneath San Diego.....probably like the Mine Cart scene from that Indiana Jones movie.....
 
I knew it! Elon Musk is Batman!

This is all just an elaborate ruse to expand his Bat Cave and build an underground runway for his Bat Rocket. On the plus side, the moon will soon be safer under Batman's protection.
 
Ever see what happens to your neighborhood when you build mass transit info it? I have.

I love that episode of the Simpsons!

Lyle Lanley:
The name's Lanley, Lyle Lanley. And I come before you good people tonight with an idea. Probably the greatest—Aw, it's not for you. It's more a Shelbyville idea.
Mayor Quimby:
Now, wait just a minute. We're twice as smart as the people of Shelbyville. Just tell us your idea and we'll vote for it.
Lyle Lanley:
All right. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll show you my idea. I give you the Springfield Monorail!
(everyone gasps)
I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and, by gum, it put them on the map!
Well, sir, there's nothin' on Earth like a genuine bona-fide electrified six-car monorail! What'd I say?
 
Would it be news if it didn't go along his commute route? We'd then be posting about what a dumas he was for not routing it along his commute. lol
 
God damn it Design1stcode2nd, you ninja'd a Simpson's reference while I was busy googling a quote

Well played :)
 
He's paying for it, then no problem. But its completely consistent with my contention this is an elitist convenience for the tech executives to work in LA and live in SF. Most people will be priced out from even trying it once.

I call bullshit on this one. Given how much Tesla and his other operations benefit from tax payer funding I think a true accounting would show that this project is likely being paid for by entitlement programs/the tax payer. Technocrats like Elon abuse the shit out of tax dollars.
 
So what it goes past his home?
This is his money, his baby, his idea, his effort, his company, his etc, and we are trying to fault him because he wants to use it?

I certainly hope the things companies create would be used by their CEOs.

I'd like to see all the Kid's foods companies having their kids eat their products.
 
Can I have a tunnel made from my home to this girl's home that I'm stalking? No reason in particular really.
 
Just a few more feet before he can build the secret tunnel offshoot that contains his secret AI / Robot Armageddon bunker.
 
Actually the biggest cost in Metro transit, as in underground municipal rail... Is digging!!!

So if this saves enough money, we can see Metro lines roll out to way more cities!
 
Fast Company has analyzed the path of the tunnel Elon Musk is boring in Los Angeles and noticed that it just happens to pass right by his home and starts near his SpaceX headquarters. If you think about it this makes perfect sense because he is paying for it himself. Why shouldn't he take advantage of his own creation that will help many others as well? Much ado about nothing if you ask me.

But even if Musk is launching this endeavor out of a sense of altruism, a belief that he alone can save L.A. from its traffic woes, he’s off the mark. An idea, borne out of frustration, to “just start digging,” is not urban planning. Musk is bankrolling his way around a rigorous design and planning processes that could actually lead to a comprehensive fix for the region, and his dream for a six-minute commute could hinder any more viable–albeit less sexy–progress the city is aiming to make.

The link is broken and leads to a 404. Just FYI. Aso FYI, there have been several broken news links that I've come across in the last month or so.
 
I call bullshit on this one. Given how much Tesla and his other operations benefit from tax payer funding I think a true accounting would show that this project is likely being paid for by entitlement programs/the tax payer. Technocrats like Elon abuse the shit out of tax dollars.

But it's all for the greater good...

The greater good.

The greater good.
 
Reminds me of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, he built a train tunnel that on his birthday, is aligned so the sun shines completely through it.
 
I call bullshit on this one. Given how much Tesla and his other operations benefit from tax payer funding I think a true accounting would show that this project is likely being paid for by entitlement programs/the tax payer. Technocrats like Elon abuse the shit out of tax dollars.

And? I'd much rather have my tax money go towards new innovations and businesses that might end up benefiting people. As opposed to something like building tanks straight to storage and other things the military doesn't want.
 
Supervillain confirmed!
He's paying for it, then no problem. But its completely consistent with my contention this is an elitist convenience for the tech executives to work in LA and live in SF. Most people will be priced out from even trying it once.
Of course he's not paying for it. These kinds of infrastructure improvements are extremely expensive, probably much more than he can spare. And frankly why should he pay for it? If it works as advertised then he won't be the sole beneficiary of the project.

I call bullshit on this one. Given how much Tesla and his other operations benefit from tax payer funding I think a true accounting would show that this project is likely being paid for by entitlement programs/the tax payer. Technocrats like Elon abuse the shit out of tax dollars.

But it's all for the greater good...

The greater good.

The greater good.
Oh, the luddites have spoken. The exact problem is that we don't have technocrats in government, but politicians who give tax money to any kind of pseudo scientific shit if the lobby is strong enough. Like solar freaking wallroadways, and hyperloopholes. If we had people with at least basic scientific knowledge in government these kinds of wishful thinking let's dump a boatload of government money into this gaping hole projects would never even see the light of day.
 
I was going to comment about the safety of a tunnel during an earthquake, but apparently when designed well they are much safer than above ground structures.
 
And? I'd much rather have my tax money go towards new innovations and businesses that might end up benefiting people. As opposed to something like building tanks straight to storage and other things the military doesn't want.
This tunnel benefits no one but the rich in CA. The rest of the average population of CA are paying for something they’ll never use.
 
This tunnel benefits no one but the rich in CA. The rest of the average population of CA are paying for something they’ll never use.

The same was also said about planes, trains, automobiles, dedicated GPUs, PCs, personal digital assistants and cell phones. Just because the rich will most likely benefit from it first doesn't mean it's a bad thing that shouldn't be pursued.
 
The same was also said about planes, trains, automobiles, dedicated GPUs, PCs, personal digital assistants and cell phones. Just because the rich will most likely benefit from it first doesn't mean it's a bad thing that shouldn't be pursued.

This is laughable. This isn't a bunch of new nationwide highways, the internet, etc. It's a single tunnel that only services the rich.
 
Is he REALLY paying for it himself or is it tax payer $ paying for which is more likely to be the case?
 
BFD. A guy wants to build a fast mode of mass transport and happens to want to start by building it from his house to his workplace. Seems to make sense as he could then actually test it everyday.

Hmm, where have I heard about wealthy industrialists changing infrastructure for the benefit of their own commute before...

http://www.jaha.org/attractions/johnstown-flood-museum/flood-history/the-club-and-the-dam/ said:
They also lowered the dam by a few feet in order to make it possible for two carriages to pass at the same time, so the dam was only about four feet higher than the spillway.

2,209 people died.

The real "trickle-down" effect, indeed. ;)
 
Musk is suffering from the same delusion that the whole country has been afflicted with since 1950. You can't have a city the size of LA and expect everyone to get around in a multi-ton metal box that occupies 50+ times as much space as other forms of transportation. It doesn't matter how many lanes you build, cars + dense cities == horrible traffic. Just look at the widening of the Katy Freeway in Texas. Record-setting 28 lane width at a cost of billions of dollars and congestion actually increased by 40%! I hope Musk can bring down the cost of digging tunnels, but filling those tunnels with cars instead of trains is a non-starter of an idea*, and a continuation of mid-20th century thinking that has only lead to wasted time, obesity, alienation, and economic ruin. I like Elon Musk, but his status as CEO of an auto manufacturer is blinding him to basic facts about the way that transportation works.

*His original concept of the cars being lowered by elevator is particularly bad. A powered lift capable of carrying cars all day at presumably high speed without breaking down is not cheap, and can you imagine how long the line of cars would backup to enter the elevator in a city like LA?
 
Always reminds me of the Monorail episode.

The monorail episode of the Simpsons is happening real life with the monorail fuckup on Oahu. $6+ billion dollar project and they still don't have enough money to complete it as they stated. So they are cutting it short and ending the monorail short of actual downtown Honolulu so the monorail will be mostly pointless at that point anyways and never come near being able to turn the revenue it needs to since it won't go to where all the tourists actually are in Waikiki. They'll waste even more money keeping it alive for almost no reason. A textbook example of poor planning, government wasting money, and the sunk cost fallacy at work. A giant boondoggle.
 
Isn't this what he stated he was going to do from the very beginning of this project? Personally I wouldn't want to spend much time in underground tunnels in an earthquake prone area
 
Is he REALLY paying for it himself or is it tax payer $ paying for which is more likely to be the case?

Of course he's not paying for it all by himself. He'd have to essentially sell off Tesla, SpaceX, or something to have enough money to do that. I'm sure he put money into it, but it's probably mostly going to be investor money. Then there's tax breaks, but probably some insignificant amount. Not enough to keep them running, but enough to get them there a little faster. Although, I have no idea if The Boring Company gets any tax breaks. *shrugs*
 
Look at all the lobsters in here trying to pull another lobster down from crawling out of the pot. As long as its legal I dont care where he is getting his funding - this guy is doing more to change our world for the better than any typical politician handing out freebies ever will. He has re-invigorated space travel, made significant advances in battery/energy storage tech, pushing solar panel installations and nearly single-handedly kick started the electric car market not to mention be one of the first companies to really push AI-driven vehicles.

All some of you care about it wanting to tear the guy down because why exactly? You'd rather spend that money on welfare families so they can squirt out more welfare kids?
 
Looks like he could have bought a nice helicopter to shuttle him around a lot cheaper.
 
This is laughable. This isn't a bunch of new nationwide highways, the internet, etc. It's a single tunnel that only services the rich.
You're right. It isn't. It's the concept equivalent of the car or the pc that eventually led to the development of those other things you just cited. There were no highways before the car and there was no "internet" before enough machines could actually use it. Someone actually doing the work, exploring the concept is how innovation happens. Not armchair inventors bitching about how they don't get to use it first.

Edit: apologies for the pejorative. bad mood this morning.
 
You're right. It isn't. It's the concept equivalent of the car or the pc that eventually led to the development of those other things you just cited. There were no highways before the car and there was no "internet" before enough machines could actually use it. Someone actually doing the work, exploring the concept is how innovation happens. Not armchair inventors bitching about how they don't get to use it first.

Edit: apologies for the pejorative. bad mood this morning.

FYI, there where highways before the car. Now, there was no modern highway (what we see today), before the car.
 
He's paying for it, then no problem. But its completely consistent with my contention this is an elitist convenience for the tech executives to work in LA and live in SF. Most people will be priced out from even trying it once.

Economies of scale though. Space flight is also six figures per ticket RIGHT NOW. In the future, that will come down. Cell phones were once unreasonably expensive to the common person, but you have to start somewhere.
 
<snip> Technocrats like Elon abuse the shit out of tax dollars.

Here let me fix that for you.

<snip> Technocrats like Elon make extreme use of government created loopholes to grab money from the federal coffers for thier own use.

Hard for me to get worked up over people who are simply taking advantage of what is available to them.


Here is what I do not understand. What fool would get into an underground anything in California? My luck would be to get into the damn thing and then the big one would hit.
 
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