Racing at 127mph under a tunnel in LA [video]

I do think these high-capacity, self-driving-only tunnels are a great idea in dense areas, but the tunnels and the self-driving bits are the easy part.

The hard part is going to be the "vehicular multiplexing" that will be required on both ends to take a dozen or so lanes of traffic and squeeze them down into a single, compact, non-stop stream of vehicles through the tunnel. Otherwise, if you can't get ultra-high utilization out of these tunnels than they're really nothing more than a subterranean version of taking your personal helicopter to work.

When you're the only one in line for the tube of course its fast. What happens when there is a line of cars also wanting to use it? Still cool to see.

When I first heard about the boring company I understood that they were planning to make electric sleds sort of like a car wash so you don’t have to steer and didn’t propel entirely from your own engine. Later reports made me think this wasn’t the case.

This video makes me think my earlier understanding was correct. It doesn’t look like the person is steering (and it would be quite dangerous to require them to). So how does this work?

I'm always perceiving this tunnels initiative as a testing ground for tech which could be potentially used on Mars mission. Let's be real, for commuting purposes in big cities it will be terribly inefficient and it makes almost no sense at all.

If the first traffic light was green, the difference is actually insignificant :/

Terrifying single-lane tunnel. A moment of inattention and instant fireball.

Outside a video game, is anybody going to do better than 40mph in a tunnel?

Lighten up people, it's just a bit of fun!