Elon Musk has started the Boring company next to his Tesla factory, to find a solution to the frustrations of his commute. He has now permission to drill a tunnel towards the nearby airport, and he has revealed concepts of how the tunnel will be used.
During an interview Musk agreed tunneling may have an application on Mars too, as the planet is cold, radiation is harsh on the surface, so most people will be living underground. Whatever the plans, we think drilling on Mars will not involve hauling a multi ton dril machine all the way through space to Mars.
The hyperloop is another reason to learn more about tunneling. The hyperloop is basically an electric driven maglev that will travel to a near vacuum, experiencing almost no friction. This mode of transportation will be able to compete with airflight directly, but will require tubes and control systems be layed on already densly populated land. The obvious idea is to move underground.
But these systems don’t need tunnels per se, they need tubes. Tubes can be made of steel, or as a concrete lining (which can already maintain the necessary vacuum for a hyperloop). But we think keeping things above ground will allow work on the hyperloop as well as traffic transit systems to progress faster. We would know to suggest a fast forward way to build tubes (one not seen tried until now) and we also know how to build tubes with less cost (also new approach), even with known tech (concrete/steel tubes on pilons) the desired product is achieved faster than by tunneling.
Basically the slowest component in the hyperloop/transit system should be eliminated to allow fast parallel deployment in many places. That doesn’t mean it will be easy to line up tubes over long stretches, or cheap or too fast to build them. That’s why other tech needs to be employed in our opinion.
Elon Musks success, even if he has stretched confidence of investors to the absolute limit (and has been stretched himself by investors to near breaking point), is inspiring. A Tesla car really does feel rock solid and really does wizz you up steep roads like its nothing. The fortitude it took for this to happen in the highly financialized car and pro fossil manufacturing environment he started in shows he knows his dreams and knows they can be real. This is inspiring others to think less about what they are asked to achieve, or what others achieve but more about what they like to achieve, or what is actually possible to achieve.
How about city streets where cars can be parked under the pavement, drive in tunnels under the street, with ventilation systems planted with Solar powered LED lighted CO2 scrubbing plants sucking the exhaust fumes and Tesla elevator systems to get the cars up and down where needed. Electric cars can even start driving on second floors, although it seems improbable we will ever have to go through such hassle with VR and AR developing as it is.