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Elon Musk was ridiculed after a viral video showed a traffic jam in his hi-tech underground tunnel that was developed as a solution to alleviate traffic problems.
Musk, an early investor and CEO of Tesla, is also the founder of the Boring Company–an American infrastructure and purportedly cost-efficient tunnel construction services company that built the transit system called, The Las Vegas Loop, seen in the video.
The three-station transportation system continuously ferries guests underground between the Las Vegas Convention Center's (LVCC) West and South Halls in Teslas driven by actual human drivers instead of in the autonomous vehicles originally promised by Musk.
Coming soonpic.twitter.com/6nOgLix6b5— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1595398248
The LVCC Loop, consisting of 1.7 miles of tunnel, took approximately one year to build at a cost of $47 million (firm-fixed pricing).
Twitter user @pixelnull shared the traffic jam video and joked in the caption:
"2025: This how most will die, asphyxiating in a tesla tunnel traffic jam, which is supposed to be impossible."
2025: This how most will die, asphyxiating in a tesla tunnel traffic jam, which is supposed to be impossiblepic.twitter.com/9DDX5PU83w— pixelnull\u2026 Certified InfoSec Occultist (@pixelnull\u2026 Certified InfoSec Occultist) 1641476765
The video of the subterranean traffic jam was taken from inside a Tesla during last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
A passenger inside the crawling Tesla, which stopped behind other stationary Tesla vehicles in the one-way/one-lane tunnel, was heard telling the driver, "oh my, there's a traffic jam."
To clarify, the safety measures (this is also untested):\n\n"If something goes wrong, drivers, who are employed by the Boring Company, are trained to continue to the nearest station. If there is a blockage, drivers are trained to reverse out of the tunnel."https://www.8newsnow.com/i-team/i-team-plans-outline-procedures-for-emergencies-fires-inside-new-boring-company-tunnels-las-vegas-convention/\u00a0\u2026— pixelnull\u2026 Certified InfoSec Occultist (@pixelnull\u2026 Certified InfoSec Occultist) 1641487919
When the passenger asked if traffic was common, the driver surmised:
"No, I think what's happening here is the South Hall building doors are closed..."
"The building itself isn't closed but the entrance doors are locked."
"I don't know why."
It turned out the backup was due to a "driver error" of having 90 cars in operation instead of the 70-car maximum allowed.
The @boringcompany Convention Center Loop operating early as CES kicks off today. Driver said 90 cars are in use in the 3 stop loop system today. #vegas #vegasloop #boringcompany #cespic.twitter.com/s9CU2c4DZ0— Mick Akers (@Mick Akers) 1641401304
Ironically in 2016, Musk cited traffic as the inspiration for The Boring Company, which was formed as a subsidiary of SpaceX.
Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging...— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1481979954
But based on the clip of the claustrophobic crawl, his proposal for solving traffic seemed to be going nowhere fast.
Me: watches this video\nMy claustraphobia: *screaming*— Rose MoonFeather (@Rose MoonFeather) 1641584578
I'm really uncomfortable with how there's no where for someone in a car to go if there's a crash in the tunnel. Claustrophobic af technology that at best, poorly approximates a brittle, overcomplicated rail system and at worst, is a catastrophe waiting to happen.— A. Harrington (@A. Harrington) 1641522079
Taking my last breath as the cool RGB lighting is blotted out by the coal black smoke of a 90kWh battery pack on fire 8 cars ahead— CHEPHaze (@CHEPHaze) 1641507679
Last year, Musk confidently announced:
"It’s either traffic forever or tunnels."
It appeared he gave us both.
It\u2019s either traffic forever or tunnels. Try our first operational tunnel in Vegas at the convention center! The city just approved a full tunnel network, connecting major hotels, convention center & airport.— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1637612064
Twitter dragged Musk for his questionable traffic solution.
Priceless\u2026. Musk\u2026 to avoid traffic jams on roads\u2026. I facilitated traffic jams in tunnels!— Truth is like Poetry (@Truth is like Poetry) 1641493336
pic.twitter.com/onwDsjNxy7— mostlyharmlessz (@mostlyharmlessz) 1641486875
@elonmusk @CNBC I thought this was supposed to solve traffic problems— Human run bot (@Human run bot) 1641479292
They should link the cars together, have one driver in the front car, and run these between stations on a regular schedule. Thinking they could call it a \u201csubway\u201d. Brilliant.— PPP Venture Capitalist (@PPP Venture Capitalist) 1641481602
I don't see how this is any better than just driving on a normal road.— James Hoffmann (@James Hoffmann) 1641484505
this traffic jam only happens with like a dozen cars down there; what do you want, one tunnel per car?— Chris Pinecone (@Chris Pinecone) 1641483086
huh, I'm surprised the super genius couldn't predict that putting more cars in a single lane tunnel would result in congestion— brrrzooka (@brrrzooka) 1641480381
\u201cBillionaire invents less efficient alternative a to a train\u201d \n\nWhy do weird guys online idolise musky so much?— Cayden (@Cayden) 1641499764
I'm sure they'll be fine. \n\nAfter all, what could happen, in a narrow tunnel? With you inside a Tesla.https://twitter.com/ton_aarts/status/1160628552557092870?s=20\u00a0\u2026— Ton Aarts (@Ton Aarts) 1641500635
The conversation happening is more intriguing- If this was a train it would be scheduled times to available stations. But now it\u2019s literally an Uber driver who\u2019s not in real time communication with anyone and doesn\u2019t have the needed info the rider needs to make informed decisions— Joshua Conti (@Joshua Conti) 1641564779
Isn't walking faster???— Hinge (@Hinge) 1641483000
Taking the LVCC Loop is supposed to save visitors to the center about a 15-minute walk.
But if this video is any indication of a recurring problem, guests may find the foot traffic more appealing than feeling trapped 30-feet underground.