Elon Musk Shows Off The Boring Company Car Elevator The SpaceX and Tesla CO on Wednesday posted an Instagram video showing how his congestion-avoiding underground tunnel project is coming along.
By Angela Moscaritolo •
This story originally appeared on PCMag
Elon Musk seems to be making progress with his underground tunnel trasnportation idea.
The SpaceX and Tesla CO, who late last year announced his intent to build a network of underground tunnels to help drivers avoid congestion, on Wednesday posted an Instagram video demonstrating how that project is coming along.
The video shows a Tesla vehicle slowly rolling onto a platform before the platform lowers and the car disappears underground.
Testing The Boring Company car elevator
A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Jul 25, 2017 at 11:26pm PDT
"Testing The Boring Company car elevator," Musk wrote in the video's caption.
The new footage comes after Musk's Boring Company in April offered a first look at the underground transportation system it's hoping to develop. The idea is that drivers will pull their car onto a metal platform on the side of the road, and the vehicle would then be lowered into the underground tunnel system.
Drivers would then be able to sit back and take a break. The car would remain on the metal platform (reportedly called a "skate") and be transported through the tunnel at around 124mph.
Musk announced the idea in December; while some thought it was a joke at first, the entrepreneur is obviously serious about it.
"Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging..." he wrote at the time.
There's at least one major problem holding back this plan at the moment: tunnel boring is a ridiculously slow process. Musk and The Boring Company are aiming to build a better boring machine -- one that can dig a tunnel and reinforce its walls at the same time -- to speed up the process.
Meanwhile, Musk last week announced he has received "verbal govt approval" for The Boring Company to build a Hyperloop underground tunnel connecting New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C.
"Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly," he wrote.
The Hyperloop is another Musk moonshot. He first proposed it in 2013, outlining a system whereby passengers would be transported at super high speeds via tubes that are constructed above or below the ground.
