On: Elon Musk is boring a tunnel to skirt gridlock

[thecolorblue]

This is a good idea, and I like to watch Elon be ambitious, but it's probably pretty annoying to work at SpaceX right now. One day you show up to work and, where you used to park your car, there is a giant hole in the ground. It's there because the CEO of the company you work for, who is already splitting his time between two companies, wants to put some of his energy towards a third unrelated company.

You are spending your time getting things into space and your CEO is literally heading in the opposite direction.

[Robotbeat → thecolorblue]

Not at all. The reason for wanting a tunnel at SpaceX headquarters specifically is to help the employees access their parking structures without being run over crossing the street: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2016/12/30/video-3-spacex-employ...

"A news report about three SpaceX employees who were hit by a car on Dec. 17 after leaving work. The incident occurred at 2:15 a.m. About three hours later, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted the following Tweets:

@elonmusk Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging..."

[vidanay → Robotbeat]

Meh. He probably could have had a pedestrian bridge approved and installed by now for the same cost as the exploratory hole.

Or even built over a weekend, then deal with the consequences and approval process after. You can get a way with a lot when it comes to personal safety.

[mikeash → vidanay]

They've been trying to get a pedestrian bridge built for ages. They keep having trouble getting permission for it. The tunnel is basically Elon saying, "screw you, I'll find a way around your stupid NIMBY nonsense."

[Robotbeat → vidanay]

Couldn't have built it over the weekend. You'd have to block traffic on the street to do it. It's a busy street. Also, building a bridge reduces the height of things you can transport down the street. This sounds like a minor issue, but it's a major constraint for SpaceX as they start moving larger and larger rocket vehicles, even for short trips at night through LA to a sea port or the airport.

[swegg → Robotbeat]

> leaving work [...] 2:15 a.m.

There's the problem.

[XorNot → swegg]

How is there traffic at 2.15am to hit people though?

[DrScump → XorNot]

In CA, alcohol service stops at 2:00AM; people leaving bars immediately after can make the 2AM hour a very dangerous time.

[woodandsteel → XorNot]

You've obviously never lived in a big city.

[imron → thecolorblue]

> You are spending your time getting things into space and your CEO is literally heading in the opposite direction.

On the other hand, boring technology is almost certainly going to play a key role in the colonisation of Mars.

[asendra → imron]

And solar panels. And electric vehicles..

[wolfram74 → asendra]

Note though that solar panels are half as effective on mars given it's distance to the sun, nuclear is even more important on Mars than on Earth.

[benchaney → wolfram74]

True, but there is a ton of open space on mars. They can just cover more area to make up for it. Plus the lack of real weather would make the solar panels more consistent.

[pitt1980 → wolfram74]

is that true? how much effectiveness are you gaining with the thinner atmosphere?

[hxegon → pitt1980]

Definitely not as much as you are losing to the inverse square law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law#Light_and_o...

[Symmetry → pitt1980]

It's about 40% of Earth's surface before accounting for the thinner atmosphere and about 60% after.

[mtgx → imron]

Yes, I'm sure that's at least part of the reason why he's doing this. He's trying to "learn" about digging (and reaching 5x, 10x higher efficiency) by doing a (hopefully) profitable business around it first.