Despite the fact that many of the Mask projects seem like pure fiction or even whim, the entrepreneur does not just promise, he does what he says. And the words with the case do not differ: he did not have time to announce his new company for drilling tunnels under the ground, as the work on the creation of the first one began to boil.
The first, as he said, will be a network of tunnels near Los Angeles, which will allow local residents to move faster from Point A to Point B in their cars. At present, the first tunnel of this network has been completed. Rather, this is the second, but its length is about 3 km, and not 100 m, like the very first test one, which cannot be considered full-fledged.
As for the hundred-meter section, it was laid to the entrance of the parking for SpaceX employees. The second
connected Hawthorne with the international airport of Los Angeles. Now the drilling work has already been completed, all the necessary communications have been laid, and work is being completed on equipping the tunnel with everything necessary to start work.
True, in order for it to work, we also need the approval of the regulators - now the final decision is still being considered. Within a few months, Musk hopes to get everything he needs, both documents and equipment.
Musk posted on the network the first video of the new tunnel, which looks like a subway tunnel. As you can see, there is already a transport highway, cables, lighting, concreted walls, a track for staff. After the regulator approves the launch, Mask and his company will be able to use the tunnel as evidence of their model of transporting vehicles underground. Initially, it really seemed fiction, but now - more than reality.
By the way, the company received a large amount of investment - about $ 112.5 million. However, most of the money was received from Mask himself - the entrepreneur often sponsors his own projects, without waiting for the bulk of the investment to come from. Perhaps that is why he manages to implement his ideas so quickly.
The three-kilometer tunnel is only the first relatively long section of the transport network that Musk planned to create. Underground tunnels can become part of a huge complex that combines both the Hyperloop highways (most likely those created by the efforts of the Virgin Hyperloop One) and the underground paths laid by The Boring Company.
As for Hyperloop, the highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco may start work next year. In the original project, which Musk showed several years ago as an illustration of his idea of bullet-proof transport, the tunnel between these two cities was demonstrated.
Tesla Inc. is involved in all this. Batteries manufactured by this organization will be supplied for Hyperloop capsules. Now it is planned deliveries
in the amount of $ 400,000 .
Last year, Musk also announced that the Boring Company had received “verbal consent from the authorities” for laying underground tunnels between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Permission, as it was then reported, is given by the Office of American Innovation, whose director now is Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The network is called “NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop”.
Ilon Musk began to think about the tunnels after several times got into traffic jams in Los Angeles. After some time, a clear idea emerged, and after conducting a brainstorming session, Musk realized what an underground transportation system should be about. He acquired the domain BoringCompany.com, created the company and put in charge of its leader - Steve Davis, senior engineer of SpaceX.
The plans of Mask in the best possible way coincided with the plans of the US President, who believes that the United States needs an updated transport infrastructure. The fact that his goal, he believes the laying of new roads, airports and other elements of the transport infrastructure, Trump said even at his inauguration. Now the Mask project is developing quite fast, so we can expect plans for the launch of the intercity network next year, as promised.