Public Underwhelmed by Latest Look at the Boring Company's Work in Las Vegas

Alissa Walker provides commentary on Elon Musk's big reveal, timed perfectly for the Tesla earnings call last week, of the Boring Company’s Las Vegas Convention Center Loop (LVVC Loop) tunnel system.

According to Walker, the peek at plans for the LVVC Loop, "in typical Musk fashion, is somehow more visually underwhelming than the previous version and also manages to contradict much of what he’s previously said about it."

"'Coming soon,' Musk tweeted, along with an image of an escalator descending into an underground lot ringed with vehicles, a pair of tunnels relegated to the background against the far wall. It not only looks very different from the cavernous, vaguely futuristic station that was originally proposed, it’s also a dramatic departure from the renderings presented at the beginning of the year," writes Walker.

"The project was originally billed as a people mover, with sleek 12-passenger 'pods' that looked like minivans encased in privacy glass aiming to move 4,400 people per hour. The new rendering, however, shows Tesla Model 3 sedans instead, which could fit five passengers at most, reducing its capacity by roughly half."

Then there was this doozy, which inspired a wave of mockery on social media:

Individualized mass transit is the future

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2020

The article includes a lot more detail on how the LVCC Loop project, as it is officially known, came to be, and next steps on the way to an expected opening in January 2021.

Previous Planetizen coverage of the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop:

• The Boring Company Gets Paid (May 2019)
• Conflicts With the Las Vegas Monorail Complicating Elon Musk's Tunnel Plans (August 2019)