Image: Bloomberg
Elon Musk’s The Boring Company wants to build a tunnel-based underground transportation system to “solve traffic” but also has more goals beyond the latter.
With the company’s Las Vegas loop for vehicles now operational, the Boring Company is looking for its next project.
According to a copy of the document pitch seen by Bloomberg, The Boring Co. has its sights set on more than just transporting pedestrians and passenger vehicles, with the tunneling experts now pitching freight transportation tunnels to potential clients.
The Boring Co. is pitching double-wide tunnels that are 21′ in diameter (as opposed to its passenger tunnels that are 12′ in diameter) and are equipped with battery-powered freight carriers.
The proposal details how up to two standard 40′ shipping containers that are 8′ tall can fit comfortably in one of these double-wide tunnels with 1′ of space between them. The containers will be carried through the tunnel on an automated freight carrier, negating the effects of heavy-duty freight carriers on road traffic.
From an engineering point of view, The Boring Company’s pitch works, said Anne Goodchild, founding director of the Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center at the University of Washington. She cited how companies such as Boeing Co. also have large tunnels for transport.
However, the obstacles then are cost, and finding locations that would actually benefit from underground freight transportation as opposed to good ol’ road transport.
By standardizing the size of the tunnels to 21′ in diameter, The Boring Co. has done a lot in the way of minimizing cost. All that remains now is finding a suitable client.
