Boring Company Gets Approval for Garage-To-Hyperloop Elevator Shaft
No, not like an unexciting company; like the Boring Company, Elon Musk's serendipitously-named tunneling company. The same company that just got approval from the Hawthorne City Council to build a shaft from a local residence that would go down to part of the company's tunneling laboratory, a shaft that would one day house an elevator which could lower a car down into the tunnel without leaving the garage.
Pretty exciting stuff, right?
From Space to Sub-Surface
According to the Beach Reporter, the residence recently purchased by The Boring Company is in an industrial neighborhood abutting a one-mile underground tunnel it already built beneath a street near its SpaceX headquarters. The new elevator garage appears to be a prototype that would connect cars to an underground hyperloop.
"But as part of its approval," according to the paper, "the company agreed not to open the test elevator to the public or to have cars move in and out of the garage from the street. Cars would enter the tunnel from the SpaceX campus, move through the tunnel and on to the garage and then back to SpaceX, so the test process would not create additional traffic on the street." It's unclear whether the proposed hyperloop would decrease overall traffic, or just move it from above ground to under.
Boring, Bogging Down
Ars Technica has a breakdown of how The Boring Company's tunnels would be better than existing tunnel technology:
The company asserts that it can dig tunnels more quickly and efficiently than has been the case in other tunnel projects, in part because of the tunnel design. Vehicles in the tunnel would be transported on electric skates. Without internal combustion engines chugging away, tunnels would be smaller, as ventilation is less of an issue. An autonomous electric skate would also, theoretically at least, reduce accidents and traffic within the tunnel.
While permitting for such projects can be complicated, especially in California, the City Council in this case agreed to waive requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act and approved the proposal rather quickly. "What we want to do is show proof of concept and as quickly as possible," Boring Company representative Brett Horton told the Beach Reporter. "We are not asking to go around the public process. Yes, we do move fast. We are trying to revolutionize transportation and don't want to get bogged down."
Related Resources:
- Boring Company Approved to Build a Tunnel Entrance Inside a Residential Garage (Ars Technica)
- Did Elon Musk Illegally Hide a Material Event From Investors? (FindLaw's Free Enterprise)
- Possible Defamation Claim Against Elon Musk for 'Pedo Guy' Tweet? (FindLaw's Injured)
- Elon Musk Refuses Super Rude Customer a Car (FindLaw's Free Enterprise)