Elon Musk says his first Boring Company tunnel is almost done, and it’ll open to the public on Dec. 10.
The tunnel beneath the L.A. suburb of Hawthorne acts as a proof of concept for the Boring Company’s proposed loop system. It originates at a property owned by SpaceX, one of Musk’s other ventures, and runs about two miles under city streets. Originally called a test tunnel, Musk said Sunday on Twitter that it’ll soon be ready for prime time.
Opens Dec 10
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 22, 2018
The Boring Company has set out to prove that superfast public travel is not a futuristic fantasy. The tunnels proposed and tested by the company are outfitted with electromagnetic pods that carry passengers at speeds up to 150 miles per hour. While larger scale proposals in Los Angeles, such as high-speed connections to Dodger Stadium and LAX, are on hold, at least one project has been green-lit: the Boring Company got the go-ahead to build a tunnel that will bring passengers from downtown Chicago to O’Hare Airport in a mere 12 minutes, and the whole thing will be privately funded.
While Angelenos may be stuck waiting for the useful routes Musk envisions, they can take courage from the fact that Musk is keeping at least one of his promises: He’ll be offering the public free rides in the Hawthorne tunnel on Dec. 11.