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

Elon Musk poked the transit planning community on social media last week with a rendering of the forthcoming Las Vegas Convention Center Loop tunnel.

2 minute read

July 27, 2020, 7:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


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:

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:

Thursday, July 23, 2020 in Curbed

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