Tesla’s Self-Driving Still Not Working in Las Vegas Tunnels

It’s been a rough couple months for Elon-Musk-related ventures, with Tesla sales falling, X’s financial woes, Brazil banning the social media platform, and news that last year’s SpaceX rocket explosion punched a hole in Earth’s atmosphere. A recent article from Eletrek has called out another: “Tesla’s self-driving system is still not working in The Boring Company’s one-way tunnels under Las Vegas despite reportedly working on it for years,” writer Fred Lambert reports. Las Vegas Convention President and CEO Steve Hill told media that the goal is now to have “some driver assistance tool” used in the Loop by the end of the year, but there is no timeline for “full autonomy,” despite The Boring Company having said it was working with Telsa to use its self-driving system in the tunnels, touting it as a operation-cost reduction measure. So, in the words of a Gizmodo article back in 2021 when the project first opened, it is “still just humans driving cars slowly in a tunnel.”

The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, which was completed in one year for around $50 million, is The Boring Company’s first full-scale loop project currently in commercial use, Lambert writes. The system consists of tunnels through which Tesla electric vehicles travel at high speeds between stations to transport people within a city. Currently those vehicles are driven by people between three stations at the convention center and one at the Resorts World hotel, with another at the Encore expected to open soon. “Overall, 93 stations and 68 miles of tunnels are planned as part of the Loop under Las Vegas.”

Given the delay in getting Tesla’s self-driving systems working in such a closed, predictable, fixed-route environment, the article expresses some skepticism at industry claims that self-driving in Tesla vehicles on public roads is just around the corner. It concludes with a bit of commentary from Lambert: “I like The Boring Company. Tunnels are a smart solution for increasing transport capacity in urban areas, and if the startup can reduce the cost of tunneling, it’s a net positive overall. However, the way they use the tunnels right now, with drivers transporting a few passengers in Tesla vehicles in those one-way tunnels, doesn’t seem to be the best use. I think as of now, a subway system would be more useful.” 

Related Planetizen commentary: Opinion: Stop Trusting Elon Musk—on Tunnels, on Teslas, on Everything