A look inside Elon Musk's futuristic LA traffic-beating tunnel system
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- He's conquered the streets with electric cars, and he's leading the commercial race to space, but that's not enough for Elon Musk.
Billionaire Musk spoke at a TED Talks conference and gave the first glimpse of the traffic-beating underground tunnels he hopes to create.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO plans to build the network of tunnels with his latest venture, The Boring Company.
Construction was well underway at the Hawthorne-based business on Friday.
AIR7 HD was overhead as crews worked on the early designs of a tunnel-digging machine with The Boring Company logo.
Here's how it would work: A computer-generated mockup shows a sprawling network of underground tunnels that vehicles can access on elevators positioned near roadsides. Once underground, the silver platforms whisk the cars to their destinations at great speeds.
Musk said a trip from Westwood to Los Angeles International Airport would take about five to six minutes.
The futuristic idea came to Musk back in December, when he got stuck in L.A.'s notorious traffic. He said the tunnel would start across from his desk at SpaceX and stretch to Crenshaw and the 105 Freeway.
While the underground highway is no doubt a distant dream, Musk has a way of pulling off ideas that seem impossible.
