Summary

Elon Musk’s Boring Company is rapidly expanding the “Vegas Loop,” a 68-mile underground Tesla-based transit system approved with minimal public input and regulatory oversight.

Backed by the Las Vegas tourism authority, the project bypasses federal environmental reviews and standard public transit scrutiny.

Despite safety, labor, and environmental violations, Boring faces modest fines and continues construction.

Critics, including former Mayor Carolyn Goodman, highlight concerns over safety, accessibility, and untested technology, but local officials and businesses support the project, viewing it as a vital traffic solution.

The Loop may set a precedent for deregulated infrastructure projects.

    • @pdxfed@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      64 months ago

      Lol, MGM owns most of the strip and it’s entire enterprise value is ~$40B. Not market cap, that’s only $9B. In the year of our Lord 2025, I’m not sure I see courts making for a fair fight when you throw in politically targeted retribution that would come.

      • GreyBeard
        link
        fedilink
        114 months ago

        Historically, casinos didn’t engage in legal fights. They had the mob to do that work for them.

        • @pdxfed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          44 months ago

          Absent a functioning, fair political and judicial system, all sorts of things are going to start reappearing on the US landscape that have been dormant for generations. Very doubtful in the current environment, but when transparent political retribution is transpiring and powerful, rich folks are on the receiving end, there will come a point where drastic measures will become among the most reasonable options they have.

    • @dhork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      244 months ago

      I’m hoping it makes the site of the new stadium they are building for the A’s cave in, they did Oakland dirty and deserve whatever bad karma they get.

  • Blackout
    link
    fedilink
    324 months ago

    It’s just going to be a private highway for Tesla’s to drive in lol. Sooooo dumb.

        • Flying Squid
          link
          fedilink
          84 months ago

          It doesn’t look like it would be easy to get out from the photos I’ve seen, and if there’s a fire suppression system, the photos have not made that apparent to me either.

      • @FireRetardant@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        254 months ago

        What, that would never happen. Tesla has a bulletproof reliability rating and rock solid quality control. They use extensive reporting techniques to catch issues before they happen. Their self driving feature is 1000 time better than a human, hence why we need to dig a tunnel to isolate them from everything else.

  • @RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    684 months ago

    Shit like this is a potential problem where the tunnel gets transferred to a shell company, the tunnel doesn’t make money or beings to fail, the shell declares bankruptcy and the tunnel and all of its problems get handed off to the taxpayer.

  • Chainweasel
    link
    fedilink
    English
    634 months ago

    Eventually one of his cars is going to blow up in the tunnel and they won’t be able to get fire and rescue personnel to it.

    • chingadera
      link
      fedilink
      104 months ago

      Not only that, but this just sounds like a fuck load of lithium bombs waiting for a fuse. That fuse would be water buildup in the tunnels. You couldn’t pay me to be in a Tesla underground with that same companies workmanship.

  • @atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    38
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    Elon Musk’s Boring Company spent years pitching cities on a novel solution to traffic, an underground transportation system to whisk passengers through tunnels in electric vehicles.

    Author has never seen a subway… Or doesn’t know what “novel” means.

    • @SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      494 months ago

      Comparing it to a subway is totally unmerited. This system is all the bad parts of a subway combined with all the bad parts of roads, with not an ounce of the benefits. It’s truly a stupid thing.

      • @atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        84 months ago

        I wasn’t comparing musk’s solution to a subway. I was comparing the author’s description of “an underground transportation system to whisk passengers through tunnels in electric vehicles” to a subway system.

  • @jagged_circle@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    14 months ago

    All I see is free housing and the possibly for casinos to collapse. Also cars being forced underground if it somehow doesn’t fail.

    I support all of these things.

  • irotsoma
    link
    fedilink
    English
    84 months ago

    In a decade or two, when cancer rates skyrocket and sinkholes start swallowing buildings, I’m sure they won’t exist anymore to suffer any consequences. Until then, I hope people enjoy their regulation-less sludge tunnels.

  • @archonet@lemy.lol
    link
    fedilink
    English
    86
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    ah, yes, dipshit manchild reinventing the subway. I’d almost forgotten about that.

    Someone really needs to show him public transit sometime. Then again, if it keeps him busy, perhaps we should just let him. I would rather his attention be focused on making a shittier version of a subway than on trying to fuck up Europe too.

    • The Quuuuuill
      link
      fedilink
      English
      154 months ago

      yeah but… he’s not doing shit. he uses his only power, money, to delegate. the trouble is that as the world’s richest dickhead, he has a lot of power to delegate

    • @x00z@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      64 months ago

      I’m not sure he’ll even be able to see the public transit from the private jet he flies in all the time.

    • d00phy
      link
      fedilink
      English
      404 months ago

      I have news for you: he not “busy” with anything past the idea phase. How can you tell? You don’t see news pieces about Boring Company workers being effectively forced into slave labor a la Twitter post-takeover and Tesla during the Model 3 roll-out. He expects everything to run like a startup because it’s the only thing he’s ever remotely “managed” in his life.

  • Synapse
    link
    fedilink
    304 months ago

    If the tunnel could collapse while Elmo is visiting it, that would we great.

    • Flying Squid
      link
      fedilink
      74 months ago

      If one of his employees dies, there’s always someone else he can hire, am I right?

      • @kungen@feddit.nu
        link
        fedilink
        24 months ago

        You’re missing the bigger picture: if an employee dies, Elon’s unemployment insurance fees won’t go up!!

    • @ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      34 months ago

      Yes cause we either get Dune Sandworms, which means spice. The Spice must always flow. Or we get Beetlejuice sandworms which means we get a bureaucratic afterlife.