Elon Musk presents underground LA tunnel project

Elon Musk presents underground LA tunnel project

Elon Musk arrives to speak at Boring Company community meeting in Bel Air, Los Angeles, on Thursday. (Reuters photo)
Elon Musk arrives to speak at Boring Company community meeting in Bel Air, Los Angeles, on Thursday. (Reuters photo)

LOS ANGELES: Entrepreneur Elon Musk has given updated details of a project to build high-speed transport tunnels underneath Los Angeles in a bid to combat traffic and said he wanted to work with the city's subway operator.

His firm behind the project -- "The Boring Company" -- wants to create tunnels that link up with existing subway lines to "complement the system".

During the presentation in Los Angeles Thursday, Mr Musk showed a video explaining the tunnels. Passengers would embark at ground-level into an 16-person shuttle -- an elevator of sorts, which then joins a high-speed, electricity-powered network that travels at up to 200 kilometres per hour.)

The idea is for the vehicles to offer a service somewhere between riding a subway and travelling in a private car -- and for just $1, passengers could reach downtown LA from its international airport in under 10 minutes.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's long-term vision is for the tunnels to also serve his Hyperloop ultra high-speed pod project -- which he says would cut the six-hour drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles to just 30 minutes.

"We're aiming to go over 300 miles an hour in a vacuum tunnel," Mr Musk said.

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