Elon Musk Is Working On An "Entirely New System Of Transport" And It Involves Tunnels, Electric And Autonomous Cars

Remember iRobot? The Will Smith starrer that was based in a sci-fi world of a couple of decades in the future. A scene in the movie provided us with a glimpse at the future of transport for humans. Why do we say that? Because that is actually what is going to happen if the ideas, words and even efforts of the tech-entrepreneur Elon Musk are anything to go by.

Over the years of being in the news, Musk has managed to re-shape the modes of transport throughout, be it re-usable rockets for space travel or potent electric cars to trump petrol and diesel engines. And now, the visionary looks below the surface of the Earth for the ¡°next big thing¡± in the transportation arena.

That¡¯s right, Musk is going underground with his ¡®The Boring Company¡¯ to make travelling easier for humans. In an overview, the vision is to create a 3D network of underground tunnels which will see cars zooming along each other to their destinations. Expand these tunnels to between cities and the cars will be replaced by hyperloop, another of his idea - to use vacuum tubes to send pods to different places instead of the conventional trains or even bullet trains.

Tesla in @boringcompany tunnel with retractable wheel gear that turns a car into a rail-guided train & back again pic.twitter.com/3a6i0NoSmi

¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2018

The Demonstration

On Wednesday night, Musk provided a look at his idea to a closed group by taking them on a ride through the tunnels in Hawthorne, California. The 1.8 km tunnel built under the 120th street in Hawthorne cost the company, or rather, him, around $10 million. The cost includes the expense of building the tunnel and its internal infrastructure, lighting, safety systems, ventilation, track and even putting a communication and video system in place.

We say ¡°him¡± above because Musk has been putting in his own money in the project which, to date, amounts close to $40 million.

As for the demonstration, a tunnel around 12-feet in diameter, which is naturally smaller than a subway, was demonstrated during the trial run, with a Tesla Model X running through the tunnel on Wednesday night.

A tunnel for the loop system (The Boring Company)

What Musk Imagines

If you look at the concept, it is actually quite an easy and practical solution to the traffic congestion on the roads. Consider the small tunnel demonstrated on Wednesday night, which cost much less to bore than what the conventional subway tunnels do, as per the company. Now a network of such tunnels can be used for several purposes, be it transportation or water transmission or anything else for that matter.

Musk imagines it to be the ideal alternative for roads. A 3D network of such tunnels, acting like highways, with one on top of the other. The network is supposed to have entry and exit throughout a city which will operate through elevators as compact as two parking spots combined.

Once in the tunnel, the vehicles, stabilised by retractable tracking wheels (recent development as per Musk) will be able to zoom up to speeds of more than 200 kmph in any of the main tunnels. Once the vehicles branch out to a secondary tunnel, the speeds will reduce. Then the vehicles can exit at the desired spot.

Have a look at this video to have an idea of the Loop System:

Easy, right? A crucial clause, all the vehicles will have to be autonomous (self-driven) and electric, which basically gives preference to all the Tesla cars. However, Musk insists that the Loop system is meant to compliment other modes of transport and not to the exclusion of them.

The best part, however, is the fact that the entire underground transport system can be set in place without disturbing the existing elements of a city, as Musk explained in a press briefing on the day.

In addition to autonomous personal vehicles, the loop will also have dedicated vehicles for pedestrians and bicyclists. As per Musk, a shared ride in these would cost about $1.

Here is a look at the elevator system:

Money money money

Just like all the other ventures of Elon Musk, The Boring Company acclaims itself to have brought down the cost by a huge margin in its domain, i.e. digging tunnels. Now firstly, the company envisions smaller tunnels for the idea to work so the cost in comparison to most of the tunnels used for transportation purposes, for instance subways, has already gone down tremendously.

The next step is coming up with the next generation of boring machines. The two in the pipeline are the Line Storm and Prufrock which, as per Musk, will be able to deliver a 15 times cost saving than the prevalent methods.

Musk also says that small factors like increasing the boring speed, reducing the tunnel diameter and most importantly, with the ability to simultaneously bore and install the reinforcement segments.

On top of all this, the company has also come up with a unique idea to save, or rather make money. The dirt extracted from the boring is now being used by the firm to create bricks which will cost $0.10. Talk about parallel businesses.

The current boring machine used for the system:

Feasible In India?

Since the entire concept is based on tunnels running through the cities, the Loop system is not a far-fetched reality for the Indian cities. A small restriction in creating a city-wide network might be faced due to the fact that most of the major Indian cities are located on river banks and that limits the ability to dig through them, thanks to the moisture in the soil. So as long as the bearing capacity of the soil is at par in an area, we are good to go with the loop system and who knows, we might soon be driving underground at such speeds within Indian cities as well.