Elon Musk's Boring Company will change how pedestrians get around, focusing less on cars and other vehicles.
Elon Musk carries many monikers; he's been called a maverick, a Bond villain incarnate, a visionary, a genius, a (fill in the blank). But no matter what label is attached to him one thing's for sure: he really really really likes to keep things moving, literally.
At this month's SXSW tech and entertainment festival, the Silicon Valley pirate/tycoon/trendsetter detailed his dreams and plans for a subway-like system that actually focuses more on pedestrians and cyclists over cars.
"Boring," But Not Really
The Elon Musk-owned Boring Company—as in actually boring into the earth, or from the earth, like the mole villain at the end of The Incredibles—is set to focus on efforts to make walking and cycling easier for citizens in the city. This is a huge shift from the guy who's all about engine-based transportation such as Tesla cars, space rockets, and hyperloop bullet trains. Musk tweeted out a series of animation specs that outline his vision (bear with us, we're going to use that word a lot with him) including a bus-like vehicle that lowers deep underground where it joins up with other people-filled vessels.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who has his hands full with shipping out new Model 3 cars and making sure his rockets can take off and land in the same spot, and who just said we can expect Mar trips as early as next year (holy crap), described his new auto-free plan. As noted in USA Today, the original idea for his Boring Company, a tunnel-drilling company, was to feature underground freeways essentially. Now, Musk is going greener with a focus on mass transit needs, walking, and cycling first. "It's a matter of courtesy and fairness. If someone can't afford a car, they should go first," said Musk at SWSX.
Rubber Meets the Road, Kinda, Sorta
Check out the video below to see Musk's vision for his Boring Company in motion:
Musk noted that the boring company would install thousands of "small stations the size of a single parking space." The Tesla CEO wants to help solve gridlocks of cities like Los Angeles, where he lives, New York, Austin, Phoenix, Chicago, and others, with new tunnel systems.
The moving platform approach to building the tunnel system Musk wants has been favored by former SpaceX engineer Brogan BamBrogan (Badass Name of the Year nominee) and his company Arrivo. Cities ike Aurora and Denver are already interested in getting this tech going to help out their own traffic issues.
Musk gave his blessing in 2013 to others to start a hyperloop system like the one he dreamed up, but switched over to wanting to solve traffic in other ways in 2016 when he vented on Twitter how much he hates Los Angeles traffic.
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