Elon Musk bores tunnel to revolutionize city driving

HAWTHORNE, US — Elon Musk on Tuesday took a break from futuristic electric cars and private space travel to unveil a low-cost tunnel he sees as a godsend for city traffic.

The billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX late Tuesday put the spotlight on the a 1.14 mile (1.8 kilometer) tunnel created by his Boring Company for about $10 million.

The sample tunnel is part of Musk’s vision to have an underground network that cars, preferably Teslas, can be lowered to by lifts then slotted into tracks and propelled along at speeds up to 150 mph (241 kmh).

“The only way to solve this is to go 3D, for the transport system to match the living quarters,” Musk said of solving the problem of traffic congestion in urban areas.

“It’s all relatively simple, no Nobel Prize is needed here.”

An entrance to a sample tunnel was shown publicly for the first time in this city near Los Angeles as the initial stage of Musk’s project to revolutionize city traffic by zipping along below congested streets.

Musk founded the Boring company two years ago as a self-financed, side-endeavor to his work at Tesla and SpaceX.

Specially designed equipment drills tunnels wide enough to accommodate a car on a track. The network envisioned is an infinitely expandable mesh of tunnels and elevators capable of having more than 4,000 cars pass through per hour.

“The deepest mines are deeper than the tallest buildings,” Musk said.

“The profound breakthrough is very simple: it’s the ability to turn a normal car into a passively stable vehicle by adding the deployable tracking wheels, stabilizing wheels,  so that it can travel at high speed through a small tunnel.”

Tunnels will eventually be open to all compatible self-driving electric vehicles, but for now Boring is using Teslas in the tube.


The idea for the project came to the billionaire of South African origin when he was fuming at the wheel of his car, trapped in traffic jams between his chic Bel Air villa and the SpaceX offices in Hawthorne.

It is a journey that takes him more than 90 minutes and he considered soul-crushing.

The “tunnel test” unveiled Tuesday appeared simple: a narrow tube, only 3.65m in diameter (12 feet), freshly painted white, in which a Tesla Model X is fitted with tracking wheels to stay in a track and avoid bumping the walls.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Lawsuits accuse Tesla's Musk of fraud over tweets, going-private proposal

Tesla Inc and Chief Executive Elon Musk were sued twice on Friday by investors who said they fraudulently engineered a scheme to squeeze short-sellers, including through Musk's proposal to take the electric car company private.

The lawsuits were filed three days after Musk stunned investors by announcing on Twitter that he might take Tesla private in a record $72 billion transaction that valued the company at $420 per share, and that "funding" had been "secured."

In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiff Kalman Isaacs said Musk's tweets were false and misleading, and together with Tesla's failure to correct them amounted to a "nuclear attack" designed to "completely decimate" short-sellers.

The lawsuits filed by Isaacs and William Chamberlain said Musk's and Tesla's conduct artificially inflated Tesla's stock price and violated federal securities laws.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the proposed class-action complaints filed in the federal court in San Francisco. The company is based in nearby Palo Alto, California.

Short-sellers borrow shares they believe are overpriced, sell them, and then repurchase shares later at what they hope will be a lower price to make a profit.

Such investors have long been an irritant for Musk, who has sometimes used Twitter to criticize them.

Musk's Aug. 7 tweets helped push Tesla's stock price more than 13 percent above the prior day's close.

The stock has since given back more than two-thirds of that gain, in part following reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had begun inquiring about Musk's activity.

Musk has not offered evidence that he has lined up the necessary funding to take Tesla private, and the complaints did not offer proof to the contrary.

But Isaacs said Tesla's and Musk's conduct caused the volatility that cost short-sellers hundreds of millions of dollars from having to cover their short positions, and caused all Tesla securities purchasers to pay inflated prices.

Tesla's market value exceeds $60 billion, and its shares closed Friday up $3.04 at $355.49.

According to his complaint, Isaacs bought 3,000 Tesla shares on Aug. 8 to cover his short position.

The proposed class period in Isaacs' lawsuit runs from the afternoon of Aug. 7 through the next day, and in Chamberlain's lawsuit runs from Aug. 7 to Aug. 10. — Reuters

Space X testing tiny submarine to help boys trapped in Thailand cave

MAE SAI, Thailand – Elon Musk’s Space X rocket company is testing a “kid-sized submarine” that could be sent to help boys trapped in a flooded Thailand cave.

Musk posted videos on Twitter of the aluminum sub being tested Sunday at a swimming pool. If the tests come out successful, the sub would be placed on a 17-hour flight to Thailand.

Four of the boys were rescued Sunday, and authorities are now working to replenish air tanks along the cave’s treacherous exit route. They said rescuing the eight remaining boys and their soccer coach could take up to four days.

A spokesman for Musk’s Boring Co. tunneling unit, which has four engineers at the cave, has said Thai officials requested the device, which could potentially help the children through narrow, flooded cave passageways.

Authorities temporarily stopped rescue efforts on Monday to replenish air tanks along the cave’s perilous exit course.

Expert divers managed to get four of the 12 boys to safety on Sunday. They were quickly transported to a hospital in the town of Chiang Rai, the provincial capital.

The names of the rescued boys were not released.

Rescuers have been navigating a dangerous and complicated plan to get the children out under the threat of heavy rain and rising water underground.

The 12 boys and their coach had been trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non for more than two weeks now.   /kga

source: technology.inquirer.net

Tesla Model 3 electric car has no instruments, just a 15-inch screen

Electric car manufacturer Tesla has delivered the first 30 units of their new Model 3 sedans. And the big difference from regular cars is the model’s lack of the traditional gauges and instruments.

On the evening of July 28, Tesla held a grand handover event to the first thirty owners of the Model 3 electric car. However, owners may need some getting used to the single 15-inch display sitting in the middle of the dashboard, according to The Verge.

The single-screen on the dashboard is a radical design change for the interior of cars and is part of the company’s ongoing strategy to push for driving autonomy in cars.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes that in the future, drivers wouldn’t even care if there’s no instrument cluster.

“You won’t really need to look at an instrument panel all that often,” Musk said during the event.

He goes so far as to add that eventually, people will be able to “watch a movie, talk to friends, go to sleep” in Tesla cars.

The Model 3 is the first step in Tesla’s grand plan to make electric cars more accessible for the masses. By accomplishing this goal, it paves the way for greater adaption of electric vehicles, and the eventual retirement of their gas-guzzling predecessors. Alfred Bayle/JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Elon Musk plays Overwatch, but who does he main?

Elon Musk is more popularly known these days as the guy who wants to bring people to Mars. But in his down time (something difficult to imagine, what with several companies under his belt), he likes to play Overwatch, and will recommend it in a heartbeat.

Musk recently sat down for an interview with Y Combinator and it was here that the interviewer Sam Altman asked for game recommendations. Without missing a beat, Musk recommended Overwatch, reports Gizmodo.

The Gizmodo team then attempted to reach out to Musk and ask him which character he often uses when playing online. He responds to the message with “It’s too embarrassing :).”

In the game of Overwatch, there are just a handful of characters that are shamed by the community when used as a main. One of which is Bastion.

Of course there was no confirmation from Musk’s end but Bastion is a fairly sound, educated guess.

Watch the clip below for the brief exchange. Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net