Whoa! Elon Musk’s ‘Boring’ video of a Hyperloop sled is anything but

Why it matters to you

Elon Musk’s underground high-speed tunnels could help solve our traffic congestion problems.

Want a slightly terrifying glimpse at what the future of transportation will look like? Elon Musk is more than happy to oblige.

On Friday, the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur dropped a bunch of images and one video online showing that ground has officially broken on his latest project, the so-called “Boring Company.” While we appreciate a good pun, never has a company name seemed less appropriate.

The “boring” in question refers to the boring of a network of underground tunnels which will, Musk hopes, resolve the traffic problems that can cause city roads to grind to a standstill. The attention-grabbing video he posted shows the testing of a high-speed electric sled traveling through one such tunnel, which could one day transport cars at a speed of 125 miles per hour.

[Warning, this may cause motion sickness or seizures] This is a test run of our electric sled that would transport cars at 125 mph (200 km/h) through the tunnels, automatically switching from one tunnel to the next. Would mean Westwood to LAX in 5 mins.

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on May 12, 2017 at 5:48am PDT

He also spelled out California’s first tunnel route The Boring Company will be offering: Los Angeles International Airport to Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman Oaks. He claims that future tunnels will cover all of greater Los Angeles. The journey between Westwood and LAX can normally take more than half an hour in everyday LA traffic, but Musk says travel duration could be slashed to just five minutes using his high-speed tunnel. He also notes that the underground tunnels will allow automatic switching from one tunnel to the next.

First tunnel for The Boring Company begins … Full length of first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman Oaks. Future tunnels will cover all of greater LA.

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on May 12, 2017 at 5:31am PDT

Accompanying images meanwhile depict the boring machine segments being lowered into the starter tunnel. “Going through final assembly,” a caption reads. “Will be a few hundred feet long when complete.”

There are still plenty of questions still to be answered about the work, but we can’t wait for this to come to fruition.

Although The Boring Company has chosen to name its first boring machine Godot — after the Samuel Beckett play about a waiting for a person who never turns up — maybe Musk is hinting we will be waiting a little while before we get to ride this thing.