Elon Musk's Boring Company wins its bid to build tunnels that will allow 150mph 'electric skates' to transport people between downtown Chicago and O'Hare Airport
- Each electric vehicle in the proposed tunnel system will carry eight to 16 people and travel at 125 to 150 mph
- The Boring Company said it will fund the project and plans to collect ticket and advertising revenue
- No information has been released about estimated construction costs or when construction might begin
The Boring Company has been selected to build a high-speed underground transportation system that it says will whisk passengers from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport in mere minutes using 'electric skates'.
Each vehicle in the proposed tunnel system will carry eight to 16 people and travel at speeds of 125 to 150 mph (200 to 240 kph), the company said on its website.
Founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, The Boring Company said it will fund the project in its entirety, and that it plans to collect ticket and advertising revenue.
No information has been released about estimated construction costs or when construction might begin.
Each electric vehicle in the proposed tunnel system will carry eight to 16 people and travel at speeds of 125 to 150 mph (200 to 240 kph), the company said on its website
'Neither our mayor, nor Elon Musk, is a patient man, so we expect to start negotiations immediately and construction as soon as possible, and we'll be putting this project online in the near future,' Deputy Mayor Robert Rivkin said.
Announcing the agreement, Adam Collins, a spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said the journey will take approximately 12 minutes.
That compares to the roughly 40 minutes it currently takes to make it from O'Hare to the city via the Chicago Transportation Authority's Blue Line train.
The alternative - by road - can take even longer.
'Electric skates are public transportation vehicles built on a modified Tesla Model X chassis', according to The Boring Company website, which said the vehicles are battery-powered and zero-emissions.
According to the website, the tunnel construction and operation will be silent and invisible from the surface.
It will reach higher speeds due to fewer subsurface right-of-way constraints and will be unaffected by bad weather.
'Each electric skate features a climate controlled cabin, luggage storage space, and Wi-Fi', developers wrote on the website.
Electric skates are due to to leave each station as frequently as every 30 seconds and the Chicago Express Loop will operate 20 hours per day, every day of the
The Boring Company has been selected to build a high-speed underground transportation system that it says will whisk passengers from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport in mere minutes. Pictured is the proposed airport station
Announcing the agreement, Adam Collins, a spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said the journey will take approximately 12 minutes. That compares to the roughly 40 minutes it currently takes to make it from O'Hare to the city via the Chicago Transportation Authority's Blue Line train
'Bringing Chicago's economic engines closer together will keep the city on the cutting edge of progress, create thousands of good-paying jobs and strengthen our great city for future generations,' Mr Emanuel said in the news release.
'This transformative project will help Chicago write the next chapter in our legacy of innovation and invention.'
Mr Rivkin said the estimated fare will be $20 (£15) to $25 (£19) per ride, which is significantly less than a taxi ride to or from the airport. A Blue Line ticket from O'Hare costs $5 (£3.75).
The project was first discussed in November last year.
'The Boring Company will compete to fund, build & operate a high-speed Loop connecting Chicago O'Hare Airport to downtown,' Musk tweeted at the time.
'There's a lot of room between the price of the CTA [and Ubers or taxis] to price a service in a way that you can make a lot of revenue,' Deputy Mayor Bob Rivkin told the Chicago Sun-Times.
According to the website, the tunnel construction and operation will be silent and invisible from the surface. Pictured is one of the vehicles on the road which is then lowered on to the underground tunnel system
Electric skates (pictured, looking down the tunnel) are due to to leave each station as frequently as every 30 seconds and the Chicago Express Loop will operate 20 hours per day, every day of the week
The skate will be lowered into a network of tunnels Musk hopes to bore under major cities around the world. The 'skates' would work on electric tracks. Pictured is a car using one of the skates
Founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, The Boring Company said it will fund the project in its entirety, and that it plans to collect ticket and advertising revenue. No information has been released about estimated construction costs or when construction might begin
Mr Rivkin said the estimated fare will be $20 (£15) to $25 (£19) per ride, which is significantly less than a taxi ride to or from the airport. A Blue Line ticket from O'Hare costs $5 (£3.75). Pictured is a segment of the boring machine
Last summer, Musk touted a possible high-speed tunnel project connecting Washington, DC, and New York.
Musk's flagship electric car company Tesla struggled last year to turn an annual profit for the first time in its 15 years of doing business.
Musk announced on Tuesday that Tesla would be laying off about 3,600 workers mainly from its salaried ranks as it slashes costs.
He said the cuts amount to about nine per cent of the company's workforce of 40,000.
'Neither our mayor, nor Elon Musk, is a patient man, so we expect to start negotiations immediately and construction as soon as possible, and we'll be putting this project online in the near future,' Deputy Mayor Robert Rivkin said. Pictured is a concept image of what it could look like
The project was first discussed back in November last year. 'The Boring Company will compete to fund, build & operate a high-speed Loop connecting Chicago O'Hare Airport to downtown,' Musk tweeted at the time
The new express service will run from O-Hare airport to downtown Chicago (pictured). It will have to deal with the windy city's notoriously brutal winters
At the company's annual shareholder meeting earlier this month, Musk said he expected the company to post a quarterly profit during the July-September period.
For nearly all of its history, Tesla has put up losses while investing heavily in technology, manufacturing plants and an extensive car-charging network.
Musk's claims that his Tesla models are the safest cars on the road have come under some scrutiny, in particular the Autopilot semi-autonomous driving system.
The Model S sedan scored the highest numerical rating of any vehicle in crash tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Model X was the first SUV to get a five-star rating in every category.
Musk shared a photo captioning it with lyrics from Dan Hill's 1977 ballad. The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm's boring machine back in February 2017 with the caption 'Minecraft' - a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources
WHAT IS ELON MUSK'S 'BORING' PLAN?
When Elon Musk first announced his plans to bore a tunnel to his SpaceX offices in Los Angeles, it was hard to know if he was simply venting his frustrations about being stuck in traffic.
'Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging...', he tweeted in December of 2016.
He ended his rant on the social media site with: 'I am actually going to do this'.
The billionaire's tunnel-digging firm 'The Boring Company' has presented its plans to build a 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting. Pictured is an image shared by Musk in October of the firm's test tunnel in Los Angeles
The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm's boring machine back in February 2017 with the caption 'Minecraft' - a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources.
On Monday, January 22, 2018, the Boring Company presented plans to build the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting.
According to the plans, the privately-funded tunnel would carry cars on 'electric skates' at 150 miles per hour (240 kph) to help with LA's 'soul-destroying' congestion.
The proposed route goes through West Los Angeles passing underneath Sepulveda Boulevard through Culver City.
The tunnel could also make Hyperloop adoption viable.
Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at over 600 miles per hour (965.6 kilometers per hour) between distant locations.
Musk's proposed first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, then to Santa Monica, and end in Westwood. Musk claims the tunnel trip will take five minutes, compared to 45 minutes driving in normal LA traffic
It was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes - half the time it takes a plane.
It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum.
The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes.
In August of 2017, Elon Musk took to social media to share progress on his traffic-beating tunnel beneath Los Angeles, revealing it was big enough to fit a Tesla Model S
Here's where the Boring Company's current projects stand:
- Hawthorne: A test tunnel has been permitted and is under construction.
- Los Angeles: An excavation permit application has been submitted to the City of Los Angeles. The project would be a 6.5 mile (10.5 km) proof-of-process tunnel which would run within the City of Los Angeles and Culver City.
- East Coast: The Boring Company says its working with federal and state officials on a DC-to-Baltimore route which would then be extended to New York. The State of Maryland has granted permission for 10.1 miles of tunnel beneath the state-owned part of the Baltimore-Washington. The company has released details of twin tunnels for 35 miles from downtown DC to downtown Baltimore, beneath New York Avenue and then the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. In the future this could be extended to New York.
- Chicago: The Boring Company has been selected to build a high-speed underground transportation system that it says will whisk passengers from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport in mere minutes.
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