Elon Musk’s Boring Company has slightly delayed the launch of its first tunnel, but Musk said that it will also include the unveiling of ‘fully road legal autonomous transport cars’.
The company said that it expects its first full system demonstration will be a short new tunnel and ‘loop’ to get to Dodger Stadium in 4 minutes.
But it also has another tunnel under Hawthorn, which they plan to use as a proof-of-concept.
Last month, Musk released a video of the Boring Company breaking through the other end of the tunnel.
At the time, he announced that the company will launch the tunnel on December 10 and they will offer the first public test ride with the electric transport system inside the tunnel.
Now Musk says that the launch has been delayed by a week, but it will also include a ‘fully road legal autonomous transport cars’:
Boring Company product launch on Dec 18. More than a tunnel opening. Will include modded but fully road legal autonomous transport cars & ground to tunnel car elevators.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2018
The Boring Company has been talking about launching autonomous and electric “pods”, which Musk previously said would be made by Tesla.
He said during a presentation about the Boring Company’s Chicago project:
“The high-speed pods that will travel in the tunnels will be made by Tesla.”
Musk had previously said that the Boring Company planned to use Tesla’s electric powertrain, but it sounds like Tesla could also build the whole pods pictured above.
He added that Tesla already had the best electric propulsion and autonomous driving systems and that driving inside a tunnel would be much simpler for a driverless system.
Earlier this year, Tesla disclosed that it plans to sell $400,000 worth of ‘electric motors and batteries’ to the Boring Company.
They have also been using Tesla vehicles directly in the tunnels. They released a video of a Tesla Model X accelerating on rails inside a Boring Company tunnel.
Electrek’s Take
I assume that we are still talking about the same electric pods made by Tesla, but I’d like to know more about what he means by them being “road legal”.
Musk also said that it is a “modded vehicle”. Maybe he means that it’s a modded, road legal Tesla vehicles that can be used autonomously inside the tunnel.
That would make more sense, but we have also seen low-speed autonomous shuttles being road legal.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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