Elon Musk says his underground tunnel is 'almost done,' offers free rides to the public

ByABC7.com staff KABC logo
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Elon Musk is offering free rides to his nearly completed tunnel
Elon Musk's plan to solve Los Angeles' traffic problem hit a milestone with the revealing of the first two-mile stretch of his underground tunnel.

HAWTHORNE, Calif. (KABC) -- Elon Musk wants Los Angeles drivers to stop wasting their time stuck in traffic, and his effort to solve the city's traffic problem just hit a milestone.

Musk wants to build a network of tunnels across Los Angeles to get around traffic and has been in the process of building his first tunnel.

On Thursday, the Tesla and SpaceX chief released video on his Instagram account of the first two-mile stretch of the tunnel completed.

"First Boring Company tunnel under LA almost done! Pending final regulatory approvals, we will be offering free rides to the public in a few months," reads the caption on his Instagram post.

"As mentioned in prior posts, once fully operational (demo system rides will be free), the system will always give priority to pods for pedestrians and cyclists for less than the cost of a bus ticket," his message goes on to read.

The video is sped up to show how it looks like if you're travelling through the tunnel.

Initially, the plan was to transport people through tunnels by lowering their cars on "skates" and take them to their destination. Now he's talking about a mass transit system for pedestrians as well.

Musk's proposed tunnel system would have stops at various locations spanning from Sherman Oaks to the Long Beach Airport.

Musk posted ideas about the tunnel in December of 2016, tweeting "Traffic is driving me nuts" and that he was going to "build a tunnel."