The opening of a test tunnel by the Boring Company took place in California last night

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This is the first startup tunnel, which was organized by Ilon Musk. The length was 1,835 km (1.14 miles), and the cost of construction was just over 10 million US dollars. During its creation, the possibilities of accelerating the operation of drilling machines, as well as the further use of such tunnels by cars, were checked. Initially, vehicles had to stand on the so-called skateboards / platforms that used to drive cars through the tunnels. Now, the company refused such a decision, and instead used guide rollers / wheels that are fixed to the front wheels of the car. In the future, they can be mounted on all cars, not just Tesla. In this case, the service will cost 200-300 US dollars.

In the demo version, these guide wheels were pre-assembled and could not be folded, as shown in the picture.


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Musk said that all electric vehicles that are able to maintain a speed of 240 km / h (150 miles per hour) and with a certain level of autonomy can use the tunnels. But, given these speed limits, in fact, only Tesla (and not all Model 3 can gain such maximum speed) are now suitable for such tunnels.


If we talk about the car trips through the tunnel, you can see that they are pretty torn and sharp. Because at a high speed every unevenness is felt very well. However, Boring Company is working on the efficient installation of concrete sections, along which the guide wheels of the cars slide. Musk assures that the current problem can be easily solved, and these blocks together with the joints will be as smooth as glass. This raises a good question - why not immediately done? Yes, you can understand that they did not have time and wanted to show ... a beta version.



Today, the financing of the company is mainly due to Mask himself. According to him, there will be no problems in the future financing, because they are simply “bombarded” with investment proposals, including the local authorities.
Further plans for Boring Company are as follows:

• reduce the cost of building tunnels;
• increase drilling speed by 10-15 times;
• the creation of a new drilling machine of the 3rd generation;
• the creation of tunnels in Chicago, as well as on the East Coast of the United States and in Los Angeles. At the same time, within the city limits, tunnels will be made on the basis of the current prototype, and between cities - with low pressure in tunnels (the so-called HyperLoop) - but for such tunnels another type of transport will be needed.

Well, there will be something to look at. Most likely, when the turn comes to the construction of a tunnel for Chicago, a lot more can change. In addition, it will be necessary to examine the question of how much faster and cheaper it will be to ride through such tunnels than to just stand in a traffic jam. Yes, the use of tunnels will not be free, the price has not yet been announced.

Additional information is taken from the video presentation.

• The maximum speed reached in the tunnel is 180 km / h, but now it is a bit scary. For the demonstration ride at a speed of 65-80 m / h;
• estimated tunneling speed (for the future) - 1.6 km per week;
• several tunnels are planned, one main - 240 km / h and many others for infusion into the stream and departure to the surface;
• there will also be other cars driving through the tunnels, something like a taxi, for pedestrians without transport and for cyclists;
• estimated passing capacity of the tunnel - 1 vehicle per second;
• braking system using radar.

The company's next goal is to demonstrate the capacity of 4,000 cars per hour (more than 1 car per second) at a speed of 250 km / h.

Not much, but 5 seconds of the trip is still sealed.