The city of Fort Lauderdale , Florida has accept a proposal from Elon Musk ’s Boring Company to build a exile tunnel that would bring people from business district to the beach , grant to Mayor Dean J. Trantalis in a tweet lateTuesday . And if Musk ’s late burrow efforts are any scout , the resident of Fort Lauderdale should set up to be hard underwhelmed .
“ Other firms have 45 days to submit competing proposition . This could be a truly innovative way to cut dealings congestion , ” Mayor Trantalis tweet optimistically , obviously oblivious to Musk ’s track record .
Musk has completed just one commercial tunneling project and let ’s just say it ’s nowhere close to the billionaire ’s original promises for what he calls high - speed “ Loop ” technology .
A rather bumpy ride in Elon Musk’s “loop” transportation system under Las Vegas, Nevada as seen on 21 April 2025.Gif: YouTube/Vegas Best Ideas (Fair Use)
Originally , Musk project a system that used full self-governing vehicles that could make 16 passengers . The vehicle were supposed to glide along at 150 international nautical mile per hour . It all sounded so shiny and newfangled and exciting .
But when Musk concur a medium issue to show off his observational tunnel in Los Angeles in late 2018 , journalist were let down . The project was nothing like theslick animationswe all saw during the maturation leg and some even compare the experience asriding on a dirt route .
How is Musk ’s transportation project in Las Vegas faring , as the lone tunneling projection he ’s gotten off the ground ? lamentably , it ’s nothing close to autonomous vehicles run at 150 Swedish mile per 60 minutes . The Vegas iteration system is incorporate of plain galvanizing cars being driven by humankind at30 - 40 miles per hour . Musk look to have manufacture homo beat back easy in a burrow .
A Tesla car drives through a tunnel in the Central Station during a media preview of the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop on 15 December 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Photo: Ethan Miller (Getty Images)
What about all of Musk ’s other projects in city like Chicago ? Those have been quietly scrubbed from the Boring Company ’s site , despite big splashy press conferences featuringMusk himself .
“ It will take longer to get through security at O’Hare than to get to O’Hare , ” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a press conference with Musk in June of 2018 .
Needless to say , that never materialize for the Windy City .
Could Fort Lauderdale be a unlike chronicle ? That all depends on whether Musk is ready to render the three things that made his early marriage offer for the loop concept so valuable : 1 ) self-reliant driving , 2 ) high speeds at around 150 miles per hour , and 3 ) eminent - capacity vehicles .
Without those benefit , it ’s unclear what the appeal could be for any city in the world to build one of Musk ’s tunnels , get alone the prayer for a urban center in what insurance policy companies call aSpecial Flood Hazard Area . Just inquire Houston what its downtown tunnels look like after abad storm . It ’s not pretty .
ho-hum CompanyElon MuskHyperloopMuskSpaceX Mars programTesla , Inc. The Boring Company
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