Forget Metro, this city to let autonomous Tesla zip through underground tunnel

Imagine a dedicated network of underground tunnels which allow autonomous electric vehicles to zip from point to point at lightning quick speeds. Futuristic? Not quite because Las Vegas recently approved a plan which would turn this into a reality, ushering in the next big thing in the field of rapid urban mobility.

Boring Company, a US-based company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has been spearheading Las Vegas' efforts for a new-age transit system that would revolutionize how locals and tourists get from one point to another in the city. The city council here recently gave its go ahead to the company's plan to have a citywide loop system for Tesla EVs.

In the first phase of the tunnel network, Boring Company is looking at creating a 10-mile underground passage from the airport to the Fremont Street experience. Significantly, this passage will connect the prime resorts in the glitzy city.

But why is this significant at all?

For starters, the Tesla EVs to be deployed once the underground passage is complete would be completely autonomous. Secondly, it would allow for faster transportation, a pace leaving even rapid metro rails behind. And thirdly, Boring Company officials say that it is being built without any public funds being used. Instead, the cost involved in constructing the main tunnel will be covered by the company itself while the casions in the city will cover the cost of stations and the tunnels which fan out from the main passage.

Then there is the obvious benefit of low or no emission transportation.

Musk, obviously then, has been quite charged up about the prospects of Tesla EVs charging through these tunnels in the times to come. "Tunnels under cities with self-driving electric cars will feel like warp drive. First operational tunnel under Vegas almost done," he had tweeted earlier.

Musk's Boring Company made a successful bid of $52.5 million to build a tunnel transport system which came to be known as the LVCC loop. The project was started in October of 2019 and is now nearing completion.