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The autonomous driving features are a central part of Tesla's stratospheric stock price. CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly told investors that these capabilities are the difference between Tesla being “worth a lot of money or practically nothing.” But actual performance on the road falls far short of Musk's claims. The latest data comes from another Musk company, the Boring Company and its tunnels under Las Vegas.
The Boring Company is perhaps Elon Musk's strangest side business. Whether it was born out of a desire to avoid commuter traffic to SpaceX or part of an insidious plan to undermine rail projects, the results of the sewer-sized tunnels were about what you'd expect: Planned tunnels between Washington DC and Baltimore, under I-405 in Los Angeles, and from Chicago to its major airport remain, quite literally, pipe dreams.
Currently, there is only a 3.5-kilometer loop with three stations serving the Las Vegas Convention Center, but there is the possibility of extending the underground system to a total of 110 kilometers.
When the Boring Company's tunnels were first proposed, concepts included customized autonomous electric people movers, but when Ars rode inside a test tunnel in 2018, it was a Tesla Model X SUV with a human at the wheel. The mode of transportation in the Boring Company's tunnels is still Tesla road vehicles, but they are consistently driven by humans despite the controlled environment with constant lighting and no weather, other traffic, or pedestrians for the camera-based system to worry about.
In fact, there is no timetable for Elimination of the driver in the (Vegas) loop, according to Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention Center and Visitors Authority. Speaking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hill said: “Hopefully this will start with a small-scale driver assistance tool by the end of this year.”
There is also no timetable for the expansion of the planned 68-mile network, but work is continuing at several locations in Las Vegas. The first new station is expected to open shortly, just north of the convention center, according to Hill.