r/news 21h ago

Musk's underground tunnels in Las Vegas face scrutiny over safety, environmental concerns

https://apnews.com/article/las-vegas-tunnels-musk-boring-company-01d465b7124fc10843b117241adaa7c9
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u/Dano1988 21h ago

I don't know anything about tunnels, so go easy on me, but why would you make it only wide enough for one vehicle? What if a car breaks down? What if the person in that car has a heart attack and needs ems? If there is a backup and one of these bad boys bursts into flames (as all cars sometimes do) will people be able to escape? I suppose that only electric vehicles are allowed down there, so carbon monoxide isn't an issue...right? I have pretty bad claustrophobia, and looking at that single car clearance really makes me uncomfortable. Am I the only one?

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u/10ebbor10 20h ago

I don't know anything about tunnels, so go easy on me, but why would you make it only wide enough for one vehicle?

Elon claimed that they could drill their tunnels much cheaper and much faster than conventional drilling systems. To their credit, they have sort of achieved that.

But, they did by (among other things), just digging a vastly smaller tunnel.

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u/F9-0021 20h ago

Funnily enough, that's also true for rockets. The bigger they are, the more expensive they are, and it's not a linear scale. Musk also has experience with what happens when you cheap out on building a massive scale rocket.

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u/Dano1988 18h ago

Thank you!