Elon Musk gets ready to unveil the future of urban transportation
Tunnelling is often a complex and expensive process but musk has sped up the process by making the tunnels smaller, and now he wants to revolutionise urban transportation.
Key takeaways
- After months of wondering what was going on beneath their feet outsiders are about to get a look at the transportation tunnels being dug by Elon Musk's Boring Company.
- At very least, it's believed that the event will show how cars can be put on platforms and whisked through an underground tube at speeds of up to 150mph as a way of avoiding freeway congestion that plagues the area.
- The future of urban transport? Musk is known for a wide range of interests that have become lucrative businesses.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2018) 'Elon Musk gets ready to unveil the future of urban transportation', 311 Institute, 18 December. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/elon-musk-gets-ready-to-unveil-the-future-of-urban-transportation/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
After months of wondering what was going on beneath their feet outsiders are about to get a look at the transportation tunnels being dug by Elon Musk's Boring Company. The billionaire Musk has invited the world's media to a Boring Company event being held at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, the Los Angeles suburb that's also home to the SpaceX rocket factory and Tesla's electric car design studio. Musk is CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla.
At the event it's widely expected that Musk is expected to show off one of the company's first tunnel segments that's an offshoot of the hyperloop concept, a Mach 1 train in a vacuum tube, or in this case tunnel, that he and others have been promoting for the past few years. At very least, it's believed that the event will show how cars can be put on platforms and whisked through an underground tube at speeds of up to 150mph as a way of avoiding freeway congestion that plagues the area. And at a maximum it's believed that the tunnels could be configured in line with the hyperloop concept, acting like pneumatic tubes below office buildings that push the futuristic trains at insane speeds.
Musk is known for a wide range of interests that have become lucrative businesses. SpaceX has become a successful low-cost launcher of rockets. Tesla is wowing the automotive world with its electric cars. The home rooftop solar business formerly known as SolarCity has been folded into Tesla.
But frustrated by Los Angeles' notoriously sluggish traffic, Musk took an interest in tunnelling. He obtained a tunnelling machine a little while ago and started digging, hoping to find ways the lower the costs of boring holes in the ground, which he did by decreasing the diameter of the tunnels by around 20 percent. And now that Musk has a demonstration tunnel in Hawthorne, it's time to see what comes next. A plan to dig a tunnel under the San Diego Freeway, Interstate 405, on Los Angeles' west side, was shelved after encountering local opposition, but the Boring Company is already talking about a tunnel to Dodger Stadium which will run about 3.6 miles in length.
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Tunnelling is often a complex and expensive process but musk has sped up the process by making the tunnels smaller, and now he wants to revolutionise urban transportation.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 18 December 2018. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2018). Elon Musk gets ready to unveil the future of urban transportation. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/elon-musk-gets-ready-to-unveil-the-future-of-urban-transportation/
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