Elon Musk finally said why he founded a new company Boring Company. Yes, to solve the problems of excessive traffic, but it is not limited to the conventional digging of a tunnel for cars. A few hours ago it became known that the finished tunnel could also be used for high speed transportation with Hyperloop.
Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, intending to conquer space, roads and roofs, has now undertaken and the tunnels. What started as a common joke on Twitter, turned into a real startup, dubbed the Boring Company. Today on the official web-site of the company there was a section “frequent questions”, which in General reveals the idea behind the construction of a network of new underground tunnels. And perhaps the most interesting mention in the FAQ is, of course, the Hyperloop.
The article explains that the original plan Mask was “addressing dosiernumero traffic”. Options? You could use either a flying machine (according to the Mask, the idea is not viable), or to go underground.
“One of the proposals was to “go underground” and engage in the construction of tunnels”, — reports the website of the company, explains that this option has numerous benefits ranging from the lack of external atmospheric influences, and ending with the ability to create almost infinite levels of tunnels. According to the Mask, in practice such a solution would look much more attractive than the falling from heaven of faulty flying machines.
Analysis showed that the construction of conventional tunnels there are two very serious problems. First, of course, cost. Second, the existing tunnels are not able to support the Hyperloop capsule.
“Now dig tunnels very expensive. In some cases, for only one mile strip you have to pay up to $ 1 billion. To build a network of working tunnels need to reduce production costs 10 times”, — said the article.
To make the tunnels more economical and effective, their diameter should be less than 4 meters. Diameter conventional tunnel usually is about 8.5 meters. To address the issue new company Mask came to the idea to use a ready-made tunnels, the so-called “electrosense”, which will be the responsibility of the transport task.
Channelerotica machine Mask is called TBT (Tunnel Boring Machine), or Godot, and have already started digging the first of many future underground tunnels network Mask. And then it turned out that there is another problem – the speed of TBT was even lower than the speed of a drunken snail, so before Musk had one more task – to find a way to speed up the digging. Ultimately, this will lead not only to acceleration of the project, but also be able to reduce its cost.
Hyperloop confirmed
So the beginning of the work expected, and the first tunnel according to plans, should appear under Los Angeles. On his page in Instagram a few days earlier, Musk has said that this tunnel will connect the international airport of Los Angeles with the city of CULVER, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman oaks.
More details on this to date, there has not yet followed, but the reference made by the company that the new tunnels could be used for Hyperloop — deserves special attention.
“Special electric or electroence will be able to carry vehicles, goods and/or people. And if to create such tunnels, vacuum, then the Hyperloop capsule, capable of travelling at speeds of up to 970 kilometers per hour” — is explained on the website.
Recall that the Hyperloop, in turn, is another idea of a Mask to produce a revolution in the transport system. The new system would link cities around the world, reducing as the time to travel between them, and the cost of such trips. As proposed in 2013 the concept of a new transport system, the movement of traffic could be undertaken using electricity, which would accelerate in a special vacuum tubes capsules with people or cargo to unprecedented for ground movement speeds.
The idea is so people liked that it was interested not only in USA but also in Europe and the middle East. Now various government and private companies are considering the possibility of adaptation of the Hyperloop concept and looking for appropriate ways of integrating this system into their own infrastructure. Despite the fact that a private company the Mask does not work directly on the implementation of this technology, the Mask has managed to Express its support for those who decided to take his concept and continue its development. And now, thanks to the creation of The Boring Company, Musk is going to build a platform where it can run and to test different ideas for Hyperloop, which in the future will be able to find its application.
Became known in fact, Elon Musk has decided to dig tunnels
Nikolai Khizhnyak