A modified Tesla Model X rests on an elevator above the pit and tunnel entrance before an unveiling event for the Boring Company Hawthorne test tunnel in Hawthorne, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. Elon Musk unveiled his underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday, allowing reporters and invited guests to take some of the first rides in the revolutionary albeit bumpy subterranean tube — the tech entrepreneur's answer to what he calls "soul-destroying traffic." (Robyn Beck/Pool Photo via AP)
Republished December 18, 2018 - 9:00 PM
Original Publication Date December 18, 2018 - 8:21 PM
LOS ANGELES - The Latest on Elon Musk's underground tunnel (all times local):
8 p.m.
Elon Musk has unveiled his underground transportation tunnel, allowing invited guests to take some of the first rides ever on the tech entrepreneur's solution to "soul-destroying traffic."
Guests boarded Musk's Tesla Model S and were driven on Los Angeles-area surface streets about a mile away to what's known as O'Leary Station on Tuesday.
The station sits smack dab in the middle of a residential neighbourhood. It consists of a wall-less elevator that slowly took the car down a wide shaft, roughly 30 feet (9 metres) below the surface.
Reporters described the rides as bumpy but impressive. At least one experienced motion sickness while another yelled, "Woo!"
The tunnel, meant to be a "proof of concept," runs just over a mile under Musk's SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne.
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6:30 a.m.
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is set to unveil an underground transportation tunnel that could move people faster than subways.
Musk plans to unveil the test tunnel Tuesday, as well as the autonomous cars that will carry people through it. He's also set to show off elevators he says will bring users' own cars from the surface to the tunnel.
Tuesday's reveal comes almost two years to the day since Musk announced on Twitter that "traffic is driving me nuts" and he was "going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging."
Since then, he's revealed a handful of photos and videos of the tunnel's progress. The tunnel, meant to be a "proof of concept," runs about 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) under Hawthorne, California, Musk's SpaceX headquarters.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018