Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority voted earlier this week to move forward with contract negotiations with Musk’s Boring Co. to construct a tunnel transportation system connecting the roughly two-mile-long convention center.

“What if we could create something that the rest of the industry -- in China, in Denver, in Atlanta -- said 'God I wish we had, I wish we would’ve,'” Chuck Bowling, who serves on the LVCVA board of directors as well as the president of Mandalay Bay, said during a committee meeting Tuesday on whether to continue talks with The Boring Company.

The Boring Co. said it could build these tunnels for $35 million to $55 million and that would be for TWO MILES!  That's a very cheap price, so my guess is that they are subsidizing this cost with their own money and doing this for the needed marketing it will provide, because there are so many nay sayers in today's world when it comes to doing anything super innovative like this... or like autonomous vehicles, or space travel, etc.  But Musk has already done the space travel thing, SPACE X is a fantastic success and it was the private enterprise that actually made it happen and made it relevant again.

The Boring Company's proposal to the Las Vegas Convention Center would feature Tesla vehicles, like the one in the photo rendition to the left, would operating though EXPRESS TUNNELS that connect the convention center’s main halls with the capability to transport roughly 11,000 passengers per hour.  That's a lot of people, when you consider that one lane of a freeway only carries about 2000 cars per hour, and does it at 60 mph.  ​

This is a great idea. Give Elon Musk credit for ambition, and for being successful. He is a genius at what he does, innovating, and transportation needs major innovation now, because some people, misguided as they may be, are thinking that we need to get rid of cars and try riding bikes for a while.  Um, no we don't.  What we need are more engineers to figure out the problem, and we need that portion of government who are roadblocking innovation, to get out of the way of roadblocking innovation.  We need to let the private sector take over the innovation because when your own hard earned money is on the line, when you own sweat and hours spent taking chances that something will come of all your visions and designs, then is the time that great things take place... when you don't take it for granted.  

The future of transportation will be with cars. Not just any cars, and they might not even look like a car, such as the rendition above, they will be merely transporters that have multiple functions.  They will drive themselves, and the people inside these transportation machines will be able to multi-task.  Riding in a tunnel prevents the possibility of getting T-Boned at an intersection. Having things autonomous helps prevent rear end accidents, and other kinds of accidents. Having a tunnel to travel in, removes all of the potential hazards of say, hitting a bicyclist, a pedestrian, a kid, somebody's pet animal, or even a train.  It removes all of the elements that are now responsible for 1,000,000 deaths / fatalities in the world each year having to do with motor vehicles.  It takes away the dangers of texting, falling asleep at the wheel, distractions while driving, drunk driving, speeding, reckless driving, etc., and makes it all about getting from point A to point B.  How can this NOT be a great thing??!  It is!

Grant Johnson, TE, is a registered traffic engineer in California,
and is passionate about the future of transportation and infrastructure.