The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s transportation brainchild, has found its way to Las Vegas. The city has signed a contract with the company to install an underground transit system under Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC).
LVCC Loop will be the company’s first commercial project and first payout ($44 million) since it was launched in 2016. The Boring Company won’t receive it in a lump sum though: The contract will withhold two-thirds of the payment until construction is complete, which is projected to be just in time for the Consumer Electronics Show, which begins in January 2021.
The goal for the project is to transport 4,400 passengers per hour. Currently, no Tesla models are in production that can transport that many people at such a rate, and The Boring Company hasn’t indicated that it is working on it yet. One solution it has proposed is to modify the Model X—the brand’s largest model, which holds seven people—to accommodate up to 16 people.
This underground transportation system would enable planners to whisk attendees from one end of the convention center to the next within about a minute; it’s estimated that a trip on LVCC Loop will take approximately one minute, as compared to a 15-minute walk. Since meetings and events are attended by hundreds or thousands of people, considerable time would be saved, allowing for more connections in a shorter time.
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Discussions have taken place about whether to extend the project to other places in Las Vegas if the LVCC project is successful. The extension could include McCarren International Airport (LAS), The Strip and Las Vegas Stadium. The Boring Company has similar projects underway in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities.
