Elon Musk’s eagerly awaited Las Vegas transport loop fell short of public expectations, after being branded as a ‘crappy Disney ride.’
The $52 million project promised to transport travellers in driverless Tesla vehicles at speeds of up to 155mph underneath the Las Vegas Convention Centre.
The project was designed to give convention attendees a faster way to travel across the campus, which spans across 200 acres, through the use of Teslas based 40ft underground.
However, on April 9, Mick Akers (a reporter for the Review Journal), tweeted a series of videos showing the Boring Company’s Las Vegas transport loop in action – and it was underwhelming, to say the least.
The video shows a Tesla car being driven by a human driver at a top speed of 35 mph. Although Tesla’s PR event was a chance for media outlet’s to gather new, special information, it seems they didn’t walk away with much – except disappointment.
According to tech site Gizmodo, the transportation system was ‘about as exciting as a sheet of unpainted drywall discarded in a closed office park.’
‘It’s just some Tesla Model 3s driving slowly in a tube. All this really is are some Teslas driving in tunnels lined with LED lights,’ Jason Torchinsky said.
Sean Szymkowski, from CNET’s Roadshow, wrote ‘the tunneling remains the most impressive thing about the project, with both tunnels completely excavated this past May. However, the rest of the process seems to boil down to a ride in a Model 3.’
The only big selling point of the loop, is that your 15-minute walk across the convention centre is cut short by a couple of minutes. However, questions surrounding the loading time of the vehicles is still up in the air.
It seems the PR trip left more questions unanswered than anything. And Musk, who is notoriously hostile to journalists, hasn’t commented on the loop – besides a tweet he wrote back in October: ‘it’s basically just Teslas in tunnels at this point, which is way more profound than it sounds.’
It could seem that the Las Vegas loop may have been neglected as Musk has his eyes set on bigger (and far more expensive) projects.
Musk has been working hard on SpaceX’s Mars mission, and has revealed his Neuralink will begin human trials later this year.
