As a tech guru, Musk is best known for his ability to come up with a variety of amazing and forward-thinking ideas. Although many of his ideas sound unreliable at first, Musk never feels problematic, and boldly uses ideas as blueprints, plans, and then puts them into action. Therefore, no matter how polarized people's evaluation of Musk is, few people question Musk's ability to act.
Musk's Super Tunnel
Come to think of it, Tesla, which already has excellent performance in the field of smart cars, it is completely logical to shift its attention to transportation. Musk is also different about the future of transportation reform, in his vision, the future of people will abandon surface transportation and turn to underground high-speed tunnels. According to Musk's vision, this underground tunnel will not only reach a new high speed in terms of speed, but also will not be as congested as ground traffic.
In order to do this, this kind of underground tunnel must use a lot of new high technology. Musk founded a company called The Boring Company. The company offers two ideas for developing underground tunnels: the first is the Loop system, which allows smart cars to drive in the underground tunnels at an extremely high speed; the second is Hyperloop technology, which does not even require a car, but uses capsule warehouses to "teleport" over long distances. If this approach works, it will definitely be a great innovation in the history of human transportation.
This beautiful goal can also be seen as a beautiful dream, but this dream is somewhat unrealistic. We do not discuss the need for such high-end technology in this plan, how to ensure security, and so on, and the problem of funds alone is not something that Musk can solve.
But Musk was an activist and soon built the first underground tunnel of the Loop system in Hawthorne, where SpaceX was located. This underground tunnel starts in a parking lot inside the company and has a total length of about 1.6 km. The short distance of 1.6 kilometers is only a dime compared to the distance of hundreds of kilometers that people move every day, but fortunately, this is only an attempt, and it is not really put into use. But the problem also arises here, because this tunnel, which is only 1.6 kilometers for testing, cost Musk ten million dollars!
This is just a Loop system, and if you want to build a more advanced Hyperloop, the investment is really astronomical. So to build an underground tunnel that can really be used for people's transportation, the funds alone are enough to give Musk a headache.
Super tunnels are not super, no congestion tunnels are congested
Although this plan is out of reach, Musk's fans have found a reason for it, in their view, although this goal may be a blank cheque for a long time, but from its setting and prospects, it has the possibility of realization and has high commercial value. In short: although it is difficult to do, it can be done, and it can attract people who are willing to do it.
But the actual use of the 1.6-kilometer tunnel is likely to discourage most people. According to media reports, Musk tested the tunnel on December 18, 2018 with a car modified by a Tesla Model X. Judging from Musk's demonstration, this way of carrying smart cars through the tunnel is very similar to the way subways and trains run. It is to install a guide wheel at the tire of the car, and then use the guide wheel to stabilize the car, so as to keep it moving steadily in the tunnel.
Because the quality of the car is much lower than that of the subway and the train, the speed it can theoretically provide is also very high, and musk's envisioned speed is also as high as 240 km / h. Regrettably, the real speed in the demonstration was only 80 km /h, which is only the level of driving in the city.
Although the demonstration results are average, Musk is still very optimistic, and said that the relevant construction has not yet been completed, the current tunnel construction is still in the model stage, so the slow speed is forgivable, and when the tunnel is perfected, the earlier goal will be achieved.
After several years of development, musk's tunnel was expected to improve a lot, but the tunnel that Musk showed again at the CES 2022 international consumer electronics show recently did not progress. The tunnel, which was already in operation, not only failed to solve the problem of congestion, but also blocked.
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What's even more disappointing is that the tunnel is only 64 km / h, which is even lower than the speed of Musk's demonstration in previous years. In terms of Musk's current attitude, he has not given up on the intention of building a huge underground tunnel transportation system. It's just that reality "punches in the face" again and again, and I don't know what the final outcome will be.
The no-congestion tunnel is "congested", and Musk suffers waterloo
Musk, who built tunnels to "eliminate" traffic jams, failed