Musk's Boring Company's Prufrock-1 TBM surfaces at Vegas Loop station

The ground work for the Vegas Loop sets in motion.
Ameya Paleja
Prufrock-1 arriving in Vegas.The Boring Company/Twitter

Elon Musk's The Boring Company achieved a major milestone last Saturday as its Prufrock-1 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) surfaced at Resorts World in Las Vegas, Musk confirmed in a tweet over the weekend.

The Boring Company is Musk's brainchild to reduce congestion in cities. The first successful project was completed at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) which ferried 15,000-17,000 passengers on a daily basis during the CES 2022, held earlier this year, Teslarati reported. The journey that would have taken 45 minutes on the usually congested road is completed in just two minutes, using the underground loop.

On its website, The Boring Company (TBC) clarifies how its tunnel is different from an underground subway system. Unlike subway cars, electric passenger vehicles used in TBC's Loop can actually move at speeds of 150 mph (241 kph), thereby reducing the time required to travel.

In August 2020, we had reported how TBC's LVCC had expanded into a Vegas Loop, with Resorts World being the first destination to be added. Less than two years later, the company's Prufrock tunneling machine has finished the boring part of the tunnel and appeared at its destination. 

An overground station will now need to be built before the destination is added to the Loop but the city has plans to increase the number of stations to connect more parts of the city using the underground system, which also includes the International Airport, Allegiant Stadium, and the University of Nevada in the future

TBC had also submitted a proposal to build a tunnel in Florida but work on this has not begun yet. The company claims that, unlike a subway system that stops at each station lengthening the duration of the journey, its tunnels allow passengers to transit without stoppages to their destination. While the carriage vehicle currently is a Tesla car, in the future, it intends to switch to a Hyperloop where an autonomous pod can travel at above 600 miles an hour (965 kph) through these tunnels and even connect major cities in a matter of minutes.

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