The Las Vegas Convention Center loop is a three-station transport system with 1.7 miles of tunnels.
Las Vegas residents were encouraged to sign up for the tunnel rides last week. The goal was to test the traffic capacity the tunnels could handle, according to The Boring Company's sign-up page.
Videos and pictures of the event have popped up online as people shared their first experience riding through Musk's futuristic transportation system. It is the first true glimpse of The Boring Company's work in action with public passengers since the tunnels were opened to the press in April.
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The test drives dropped the riders off between stations and most testers went for anywhere between seven to 12 rides, according to The Verge.
Overall, the experience is toned down from Musk's original vision, which involved autonomous vehicles that could be summoned via an app and rides through the tunnels at 150 miles per hour.
Test riders at the Las Vegas Loop did not use an app, but merely walked up to available Teslas. The cars were driven by drivers through the tunnels at limited speeds with most videos showing a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour, though one video appears to show a Tesla hitting a top speed of 116 miles per hour in one of the tunnels.
-A Boring Revolution (@BoringPrufrock) May 25, 2021
The goal of The Boring Company's $52.5 million project is to turn a 45-minute walk into a two-minute trip, but testers pointed to inefficiency in the system as they waited for cars to arrive at the stations, and cars became backed up in the tight underground spaces between tunnel roads.
The tunnel system is meant to shuttle up to 4,400 passengers per hour, but documents obtained by TechCrunch in October show that the $52.5 million loop may only be able to accommodate 1,200 people due to fire regulations.
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