Boring Company to build car elevator connecting garage with LA underground tunnel
Elon Musk's Boring Company plans to build a garage with a car-size elevator for lowering vehicles to a network of underground tunnels below.
The futuristic answer to Los Angeles' notorious traffic problems ties in with The Boring Company's existing plans to build a subterranean network of tunnels, whisking cars on electric sleds at over 120 mph beneath the city.
Read More:
- Musk's Boring Company plans 150mph 'Dugout Loop' at Dodger Stadium
- Boring Company wins bid to built 16-mile Loop at Chicago O'Hare airport
Permission to construct the elevator was granted by the Hawthorne City Council earlier this week, The Mercury News reports.
It will be built to connect a one-mile tunnel, already constructed by The Boring Company, with a property it recently acquired on 120th Street between Hawthorne Boulevard and Prairie Avenue, close to the headquarters of SpaceX, Musk's rocket-building company.
Musk said in a tweet: The Boring Company will transport your car all the way into your garage."
A diagram produced by The Boring Company shows how a car could be lowered from inside the street-level garage, to a tributary which would lead to the main tunnel, which in turn heads to the SpaceX parking lot.
The Boring Company began digging its first test tunnel at Space X in early 2017, with the goal of increasing current tunnel-boring speeds by a factor of 10. It recently won the right to build a tunnel connecting Dodger Stadium with one of three LA neighborhoods; the tunnels will house a 'Loop' transportation system, where passengers are transported in electric pods at between 125 and 150 mph for $1 per ride.
The vehicles used on the so-called Dugout Loop at Dodger Stadium will be similar to the sled used to connect the car elevator planned for 120th Street, but instead of pods for carrying 16 passengers, they will carry a single car.
For now, The Boring Company has agreed not to open the garage and car elevator to the public. And, to ensure it will not contribute to local traffic, it said vehicles will not move in or out of the garage from the street. Instead, cars will enter the tunnel on sleds at SpaceX, then turn off at the tributary and enter the elevator shaft, before being lifted into the garage.
As well as this one-mile tunnel and the 3.6-mile Dugout Loop, The Boring Company is also working on a 16-mile Loop system connecting Chicago O'Hare airport with downtown.
