Elon Musk has given up on using side wheels along tracks in his Los Angeles test Loop in favor of paving the surface, effectively turning the portal into a very narrow tunnel.
The so-called 'Test Tunnel' was unveiled in December and runs underneath the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Now that it's paved, The Boring Company has released a video showing a Tesla reaching a high speed of 127 miles per hour in a race with a Tesla on the surrounding roadways, beating the surface-driven vehicle to its final destination by three minutes and eight seconds.
Musk originally wanted to use sleds in the design, but gave that idea up for retractable side wheels to help guide vehicles, and has now scrapped both, saying, 'This is simple and just works.'
The purpose of the Hawthorne tunnel is 'for the research and development of The Boring Company's public transportation systems, Loop and Hyperloop,' according to the Boring Company's website.
A Twitter used asked the entrepreneur, 'No more wheel guider/train platform? 127mph in a narrow tunnel just in autopilot?'
Musk replied, 'Pretty much.'
Musk apparently now conceives the Hawthorne tunnel as one in a series of stacked tunnels meant to alleviate more localized traffic congestion.
Elon Musk has given up on using side wheels along tracks in his Los Angeles test Loop in favor of paving the surface, effectively turning the portal into a very narrow tunnel
A Twitter used asked the entrepreneur, 'No more wheel guider/train platform? 127mph in a narrow tunnel just in autopilot?'
Musk replied, 'Pretty much.' The purpose of the Hawthorne tunnel is 'for the research and development of The Boring Company's public transportation systems, Loop and Hyperloop,' according to the Boring Company's website
In the race video released early on May 24, the Tesla in the tunnel beat out the surface driven Tesla by a landslide.
Musk touted the benefits of using a system of layered tunnels in tweet later that day.
'Fundamental advantage of layers of tunnels is you can have as many lanes as you want going in any direction. Will feel like folding space from one part of a city to another,' he tweeted on May 24.
'Another great thing about many layers of interconnected tunnels with ramps & elevators is that they can go from near your home all way to popping up at destination parking lot,' he wrote in a second tweet.
He added, 'Thus *reducing* existing road traffic.'
On May 24, The Boring Compay tweeted a race video showing a Tesla in the Hawthorne Test Tunnel beating out Tesla driven on roads to the same final destination by three minutes and eight seconds
The Tesla in the tunnel reached a speed of up to 127 miles per hour. Musk originally wanted to use sleds in the design, but gave that idea up for retractable side wheels to help guide vehicles, and has now scrapped both, saying, 'This is simple and just works.'
Musk touted the benefits of using a system of layered tunnels in tweet later that day. 'Fundamental advantage of layers of tunnels is you can have as many lanes as you want going in any direction. Will feel like folding space from one part of a city to another,' he tweeted on May 24
Another great thing about many layers of interconnected tunnels with ramps & elevators is that they can go from near your home all way to popping up at destination parking lot,' he wrote in a second tweet
He added, 'Thus *reducing* existing road traffic. At the test tunnel reveal, Musk explained his original conception for how the system, which he simply calls 'Loop,' could work on a larger scale beneath cities across the globe
At the test tunnel reveal, Musk explained his original conception for how the system, which he simply calls 'Loop,' could work on a larger scale beneath cities across the globe.
Autonomous, electric vehicles could be lowered into the system on wall-less elevators the size of two cars. Such elevators could be placed almost anywhere cars can go.
A number of
