Here's something you can wistfully think of as you sit in traffic on the 405 next time. Elon Musk has unveiled his proposed underground transportation system that would zip cars around Los Angeles underground at 125 mph!
How does it work?
A series of tunnels dug underneath city streets would transport cars around the city on electric 'sleds', allowing drivers to travel from Westwood to LAX in five minutes. You'll never be late for another flight again!
Musk posted a video to his Instagram account on Saturday that shows the sled ramping up speed, traveling through the tunnel at an incredible rate. He wrote on his Instagram page Saturday that the sled would transport cars underneath the city, switching from one tunnel to the next at 125 mph.
[Warning, this may cause motion sickness or seizures]This is a test run of our electric sled that would transport cars at 125 mph (200 km/h) through the tunnels, automatically switching from one tunnel to the next. Would mean Westwood to LAX in 5 mins
Musk says he came up with the idea as he was sitting in traffic in Westwood, trying to make it to the SpaceX complex in Hawthorne.
The SpaceX and Tesla founder first tweeted about the idea back in January, while lamenting about his commute from the Westside to his SpaceX complex in Hawthorne, but people didn't take him seriously. Most pointed to the huge logistical and engineering challenges inherent to the idea. Wired called his tunnels under LA 'misguided nonsense', while LA Weekly pointed out that Musk's tunnels weren't exactly legal under state regulations.
But, like most billionaires used to getting their way, Musk refused to pay attention to the naysayers. He continued with his project, tweeting photos of workers at his Hawthorne complex evacuating a huge trench in January, and later, of his brand new 'boring' machine in February.
“If you think of tunnels going 10, 20, 30 layers deep (or more), it is obvious that going 3D down will encompass the needs of any city’s transport of arbitrary size,” he told WIRED last week in a Twitter direct message.
The tunnels for cars are different than the Hyperloop' Musk proposed a few years ago. The Hyperloop would be a single carriage to carry people at high speeds across the state, while the tunnels underneath LA would be used for cars.
People didn't think Musk was serious when he first proposed the idea of fighting traffic like we were a bunch of mole people, but, with this test run, and Musk's singlemindedness of purpose, we may be zipping around the Westside sooner than we think.
Elon Musk released a new video on Saturday showcasing a 125 mph electric sled that would transport cars through an underground tunnel allowing drivers to travel from Westwood to the Los Angeles International Airport in five minutes.