Elon Musk wants a network of subterranean city tunnels carrying cars around at 130 miles per hour. But the project is moving ahead about as quickly as a pet snail he cited.

Late last year he tweeted “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” For most people that would be a flippant comment but when, like Musk, you’re worth a reported $15 billion, you can give it a go. Musk has now set up The Boring Company and acquired some hardware, though says he’s only spending about three per cent of his time on the project.

Speaking at a TED Talks conference, he explained the concept would be that the network of tunnels would be accessed via specially converted parking spaces. The spaces would in fact be elevators that dropped the car off onto a sled-like platform that would then move the car to its destination. The idea is that the platforms would all be centrally controlled so could move safely at a much faster speed than humans can drive.

In Musk’s vision, the network would be a huge three-dimensional grid with multiple layers. Each driver would input their destination and then the system would route the platforms to maximize overall efficiency. That would mean that, as with data packets on the Internet, two platforms making the same journey might take different routes.

Exactly who pays to build this, how the system is financed, and who you actually have to ask before you can starting digging tunnels has yet to be clarified. As cynical TechCrunch commenter Mike Quinn put it, “I think Musk will be living on Mars, driving a Solar powered Tesla on paved Martian roads, with a neural lace in his brain, long before this ever becomes a reality.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5V_VzRrSBI