5 ms·

Elon Musk's first LA tunnel with free rides to kick off this summer

41 points by djrogers 8y ago

olliej 8y ago
That is the most ad and 3rd link heavy site I’ve seen on HN in a while. Does anyone have a better reference?
- ricardobeat 8y ago
  The 'announcement' on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BinoVT6Acpd/?hl=en&taken-by=elonmusk https://www.instagram.com/p/BinoVT6Acpd/?hl=en&taken-by=elon...
  - koolba 8y ago
    That camera angle is dizzying!
boznz 8y ago
Where does it go to?
- asdsa5325 8y ago
  Read the article?
  - mmagin 8y ago
    It just says it's under LA. And it says where it'll go. It doesn't say anything about where they specifically did 500 feet of tunnel so far.
    - diggernet 8y ago
      Based on past coverage, it's underneath a parking lot across the street from SpaceX. Edit: Satellite photos suggest here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B055'18.3%22N+118%C2%B019'33.7%22W/@33.9218979,-118.3261516,17z/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B055'18.3%22N+118%C2...
    - asdsa5325 8y ago
      At Boring Company HQ From the article, make sure you read carefully before you downvote next time: "But first it's all about baby steps, with the company getting to work on its first test tunnel that begins at its headquarters in LA."
robotkdick 8y ago
Am I crazy to be more excited about Boring than I am about Tesla or SpaceX?
- throwaway84742 8y ago
  Not at all. We could use some out of the box thinking of Elon’s caliber here on Earth as well. A week ago I was in Moscow. Their subway is truly insane in its scale. It’d be pretty cool if something like this could be built in major US cities as well.
  - KAdot 8y ago
    It's already built - in NYC. New York City Subway has twice as many stations as Moscow Metro.
    - throwaway84742 8y ago
      Sure, but I don’t live in NYC, and traffic is terrible where I live, and it’s not economical to improve it without fast, cheap boring technology. PS; interestingly, Moscow metro has more riders, in spite of a smaller city.
function_seven 8y ago
So where is it exactly?
- asdsa5325 8y ago
  Did you not want to read the article?
  - astrodust 8y ago
    The article is pretty vague on where it is, other than "Los Angeles", which as anyone knows is pretty fucking big.
    - asdsa5325 8y ago
      "But first it's all about baby steps, with the company getting to work on its first test tunnel that begins at its headquarters in LA." Is that not specific enough? Seems pretty clear to me
      - function_seven 8y ago
        I was looking for a line on a map or something. And the length of it. I know it was 500' at some point, but now it's longer, though unclear how much longer. Or where it goes. FWIW, Wikipedia answers my question. I should have checked there before commenting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boring_Company#Los_Angeles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boring_Company#Los_Angeles
        astrodust 8y ago
        How many vehicles per hour can his little tunnel handle? I'm guessing under a hundred.
        function_seven 8y ago
        Beats me. I'm really interested in seeing it in person. It could be 60 cars per hour, or 240. Either one seems plausible, just a matter of how often the next one is sent on its way, and what the queuing system is like. If the endpoints can keep up with enqueuing and dequeuing the cars, then you could stuff 12 cars a minute on there (720 c/h) and have a 5 second following distance. I bet you're right, though. At least on this initial build out.
huebnerob 8y ago
I thought that the anemic pace of tunnel construction was more a political problem than a technological one. Either Musk has solved NIMBY-ism and red tape, or he happened to pick a convenient location free from these issues for his pilot tube. I suppose much of politics is arguing over who’s going to pay for something, and who’s going to actually build it. With The Boring Company digging their own proving ground, these questions are moot. Far from being a naysayer, I live in NYC, we need more tunnels dug than ever before. If this works, we'll take twenty.
- dgreensp 8y ago
  According to Elon, conventional tunneling costs "as much as $1 billion per mile," which is the biggest reason we don't have more tunnels.
  - astrodust 8y ago
    How is what he doing not conventional? That's a mail-order tunnel-boring machine he's got there.
    - rohit2412 8y ago
      And tunneling doesn't cost 1 billion dollar a mile. One Mumbai metro line is being built at 100 million dollar per km, the cost includes everything, stations, tracks, coaches, etc. And they're using 17 tbm for this purpose.
      - astrodust 8y ago
        The cost is proportional to what kind of environment you're operating in. If it's ideal terrain it'll be cheap. If it's difficult, ever changing conditions with a high risk of subsidence damage to the structures above, get ready to pay way, way more. See the Seattle "Big Dig" project for an example of how sideways things can go if you hit an unexpected snag.
    - ricardobeat 8y ago
thedarkginger 8y ago
This article points out Phase 2 will look to connect LAX with the 101. Does anyone know anything about the logistics of receiving approval to dig underground? From their FAQ (see below), it says they will partner with the City of Los Angeles, but does LA own mineral rights such that they could sell the needed territory surface for this ambitious project? I assume Boring is definitely not dealing with individual property owners. "Blue indicates potential Phase 2 expansion options, and is included as a concept, not as a finalized alignment. Phase 2 specifics would be developed in cooperation with Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles, city governments in the greater Los Angeles area, and the general public. The Boring Company looks forward to receiving feedback from residents of the greater Los Angeles area on station locations and system improvements for Phase 2 and beyond." https://www.boringcompany.com/faq/ https://www.boringcompany.com/faq/

41 points by djrogers 8y ago

olliej 8y ago

That is the most ad and 3rd link heavy site I’ve seen on HN in a while. Does anyone have a better reference?

ricardobeat 8y ago
The 'announcement' on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BinoVT6Acpd/?hl=en&taken-by=elonmusk https://www.instagram.com/p/BinoVT6Acpd/?hl=en&taken-by=elon...
- koolba 8y ago
  That camera angle is dizzying!

boznz 8y ago

Where does it go to?

asdsa5325 8y ago
Read the article?
- mmagin 8y ago
  It just says it's under LA. And it says where it'll go. It doesn't say anything about where they specifically did 500 feet of tunnel so far.
  - diggernet 8y ago
    Based on past coverage, it's underneath a parking lot across the street from SpaceX. Edit: Satellite photos suggest here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B055'18.3%22N+118%C2%B019'33.7%22W/@33.9218979,-118.3261516,17z/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B055'18.3%22N+118%C2...
  - asdsa5325 8y ago
    At Boring Company HQ From the article, make sure you read carefully before you downvote next time: "But first it's all about baby steps, with the company getting to work on its first test tunnel that begins at its headquarters in LA."

robotkdick 8y ago

Am I crazy to be more excited about Boring than I am about Tesla or SpaceX?

throwaway84742 8y ago
Not at all. We could use some out of the box thinking of Elon’s caliber here on Earth as well. A week ago I was in Moscow. Their subway is truly insane in its scale. It’d be pretty cool if something like this could be built in major US cities as well.
- KAdot 8y ago
  It's already built - in NYC. New York City Subway has twice as many stations as Moscow Metro.
  - throwaway84742 8y ago
    Sure, but I don’t live in NYC, and traffic is terrible where I live, and it’s not economical to improve it without fast, cheap boring technology. PS; interestingly, Moscow metro has more riders, in spite of a smaller city.

function_seven 8y ago

So where is it exactly?

asdsa5325 8y ago
Did you not want to read the article?
- astrodust 8y ago
  The article is pretty vague on where it is, other than "Los Angeles", which as anyone knows is pretty fucking big.
  - asdsa5325 8y ago
    "But first it's all about baby steps, with the company getting to work on its first test tunnel that begins at its headquarters in LA." Is that not specific enough? Seems pretty clear to me
    - function_seven 8y ago
      I was looking for a line on a map or something. And the length of it. I know it was 500' at some point, but now it's longer, though unclear how much longer. Or where it goes. FWIW, Wikipedia answers my question. I should have checked there before commenting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boring_Company#Los_Angeles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boring_Company#Los_Angeles
      - astrodust 8y ago
        How many vehicles per hour can his little tunnel handle? I'm guessing under a hundred.
        function_seven 8y ago
        Beats me. I'm really interested in seeing it in person. It could be 60 cars per hour, or 240. Either one seems plausible, just a matter of how often the next one is sent on its way, and what the queuing system is like. If the endpoints can keep up with enqueuing and dequeuing the cars, then you could stuff 12 cars a minute on there (720 c/h) and have a 5 second following distance. I bet you're right, though. At least on this initial build out.

huebnerob 8y ago

I thought that the anemic pace of tunnel construction was more a political problem than a technological one. Either Musk has solved NIMBY-ism and red tape, or he happened to pick a convenient location free from these issues for his pilot tube. I suppose much of politics is arguing over who’s going to pay for something, and who’s going to actually build it. With The Boring Company digging their own proving ground, these questions are moot. Far from being a naysayer, I live in NYC, we need more tunnels dug than ever before. If this works, we'll take twenty.

dgreensp 8y ago
According to Elon, conventional tunneling costs "as much as $1 billion per mile," which is the biggest reason we don't have more tunnels.
- astrodust 8y ago
  How is what he doing not conventional? That's a mail-order tunnel-boring machine he's got there.
  - rohit2412 8y ago
    And tunneling doesn't cost 1 billion dollar a mile. One Mumbai metro line is being built at 100 million dollar per km, the cost includes everything, stations, tracks, coaches, etc. And they're using 17 tbm for this purpose.
    - astrodust 8y ago
      The cost is proportional to what kind of environment you're operating in. If it's ideal terrain it'll be cheap. If it's difficult, ever changing conditions with a high risk of subsidence damage to the structures above, get ready to pay way, way more. See the Seattle "Big Dig" project for an example of how sideways things can go if you hit an unexpected snag.
  - ricardobeat 8y ago

thedarkginger 8y ago

This article points out Phase 2 will look to connect LAX with the 101. Does anyone know anything about the logistics of receiving approval to dig underground? From their FAQ (see below), it says they will partner with the City of Los Angeles, but does LA own mineral rights such that they could sell the needed territory surface for this ambitious project? I assume Boring is definitely not dealing with individual property owners. "Blue indicates potential Phase 2 expansion options, and is included as a concept, not as a finalized alignment. Phase 2 specifics would be developed in cooperation with Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles, city governments in the greater Los Angeles area, and the general public. The Boring Company looks forward to receiving feedback from residents of the greater Los Angeles area on station locations and system improvements for Phase 2 and beyond." https://www.boringcompany.com/faq/ https://www.boringcompany.com/faq/