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Nashville Teams with Elon Musk to Build Tesla Tunnel to Airport · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:17
  Could Nashville's chronic traffic problems finally have a
• 0:20
  solution? Through a Tesla tunnel beneath
• 0:23
  the city, the city government announced a new partnership with
• 0:26
  Elon Musk's Boring Company to build an underground tunnel
• 0:29
  connecting downtown Nashville, TN directly to Nashville
• 0:34
  International Airport BNA. If you're flying in or out.
• 0:38
  The move is Nashville's newest effort to ease congestion,
• 0:41
  provide efficient airport transit, and modernize the
• 0:45
  city's transportation infrastructure.
• 0:48
  Now this initial proposal, there's a test the power transit
• 0:52
  system with little ferry passengers in Teslas through a
• 0:58
  10 mile tunnel, significantly shortening the journey from
• 1:01
  downtown to the airport. While typical drives can take
• 1:05
  more than an hour or half an hour in heavy traffic, Musk's
• 1:10
  Boring Company expects their tunnel to reduce the trip to
• 1:13
  under 10 minutes. Now, this route will use Tesla's
• 1:16
  autonomous EVs to streamline the passenger experience and reduce
• 1:21
  surface level congestion. Now, Nashville officials state
• 1:25
  this initiative aims to alleviate the notoriously heavy
• 1:28
  traffic along the I-40 corridor between downtown and the
• 1:31
  airport, where frequent backups frustrate travelers and locals
• 1:35
  on a daily basis. And with Nashville's population
• 1:38
  and tourism steadily increasing, city planners view innovative
• 1:42
  transportation solutions like this tunnel as necessary to
• 1:45
  maintain manageable traffic conditions.
• 1:48
  Now, the agreement between Nashville and The Boring Company
• 1:50
  requires the firm to perform an extensive feasibility study,
• 1:54
  first assessing local geological conditions, potential routes and
• 1:59
  economic factors before tunneling begins.
• 2:02
  This preliminary evaluation will guide city planners and
• 2:05
  engineers to pinpoint the safest and most efficient path for the
• 2:08
  proposed underground route. Now, while Nashville officials
• 2:12
  have not yet released specific cost estimates for the tunnel,
• 2:15
  similar projects from The Boring Company elsewhere indicate the
• 2:19
  price tag could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
• 2:22
  Now in Las Vegas, the company's underground loop connecting
• 2:25
  various points across the city costs about $50 million per
• 2:29
  mile. Now, Nashville's proposed tunnel
• 2:32
  had about 10 miles in length may approach or exceed 1/2 billion
• 2:37
  dollar investment. However, city leaders assert
• 2:40
  that the financial benefits could justify the steep price,
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  pointing out potential economic gains from reduced traffic
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  congestion, improved accessibility and also increased
• 2:50
  tourism. Nobody wants to be stuck in
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  traffic while they're going to do some fun things in Nashville.
• 2:56
  Officials anticipate that swift and reliable transit from
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  downtown Nashville directly to BNA Airport could further
• 3:01
  enhance the city's reputation as an attractive business and also
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  a tourism destination. The Boring Company's past
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  projects provide insights into how the Nashville Tunnel could
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  function in Las Vegas. Elon Musk's firm operates
• 3:15
  electric vehicle loops beneath the city, transporting
• 3:17
  passengers between convention centers and hotels.
• 3:21
  Now, the success of the Las Vegas project has encouraged
• 3:23
  other cities to explore similar transit options, with Fort
• 3:27
  Lauderdale, FL, also recently agreeing to pursue a tunnel
• 3:31
  linking its downtown area directly to the beach.
• 3:34
  Which is pretty cool now. Despite general optimism, Musk's
• 3:38
  tunneling ventures have encountered public skepticism
• 3:41
  and occasional setbacks. Critics have questioned the
• 3:43
  actual capacity and cost effectiveness of those tunnels,
• 3:47
  noting that the relatively small passenger vehicles may struggle
• 3:50
  to move large crowds during peak travel periods.
• 3:53
  Initially, early projects such as the cancel Chicago O'Hare
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  Airport Tunnel raised concerns about reliability, scalability,
• 4:00
  and long term maintenance costs. Nashville city planners counter
• 4:04
  these criticisms by emphasizing that traditional traffic
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  mitigation solutions have proven inadequate in recent years.
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  Public transit, buses and rail infrastructure alone if not
• 4:13
  successfully reduced congestion, prompting local officials to
• 4:17
  consider innovative alternatives like a boring tunnel with
• 4:20
  Tesla's. They believe that the Boring
• 4:22
  Company, if implemented successfully, could set a
• 4:26
  positive precedent for modern urban transportation across the
• 4:30
  country. They're going to be one of the
• 4:31
  first adopters, and of course there's going to be some
• 4:34
  hurdles, but they'll get over them.
• 4:37
  So there's a The next phase is coming up.
• 4:40
  Nashville officials and Boring Company engineers initiating
• 4:43
  detailed analysis and planning, preparing technical details,
• 4:47
  route alignment and preliminary cost assessments.
• 4:50
  And once this process finishes, City Council will evaluate the
• 4:54
  results, reviews the feasibility findings, and make formal
• 4:58
  decisions on proceeding with the project.
• 5:02
  No, Nashville is doing something really interesting here because
• 5:06
  there aren't many tunnels that are being built currently under
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  cities that go from the city to the airport.
• 5:13
  Tesla and the porn company are doing a bunch of them recently
• 5:17
  and they're getting more contracts across the country and
• 5:20
  looking to get contracts all over the world actually right
• 5:24
  now. We're going to have more
• 5:25
  information about that for you in the future.
• 5:27
  There's a couple overseas project that they're working on.
• 5:30
  Should be pretty interesting. There's feasibility studies
• 5:32
  happening and this is all kind of hush hush right now.
• 5:36
  I have some insiders that have been telling me some things and
• 5:40
  it's going to be pretty cool if they pull it off.
• 5:43
  Nashville is one of those hubs that a lot of people go to for
• 5:47
  the entertainment, for the music, etcetera.
• 5:49
  But then they fly out of Nashville and they go someplace
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  else. So when they are downtown and
• 5:54
  they're being entertained, of course they have to get back to
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  their airport hotel. So why do you want to call an
• 6:01
  Uber when you can just jump inside of a Tesla, go through a
• 6:05
  tube, whisk off back to your hotel near the airport next
• 6:10
  morning, grab a Tesla robo taxi in the future, and then get to
• 6:15
  your airport destination or take the shuttle.
• 6:18
  That's cool too. So hopefully this works out and
• 6:22
  Elon Musk's tunnel system in Nashville is a big hit.
• 6:28
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 6:29
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 6:31
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• 6:34
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• 6:36
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• 6:39
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  miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
• 6:45
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• 6:48
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• 6:50
  to patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of
• 6:56
  yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.