Laura J. NelsonVerified account

Elon Musk is here with Boring Company director Steve Davis, and they’re talking together on stage about how fast they hope to tunnel (“faster than a snail”) and how they would try to cut costs in the tunnel project. No mention yet of what would go IN the tunnels.

“Highways are at the outer limit of their capacity, and you’re really just barely moving the needle on capacity,” Musk said. “But for tunnels, you can have hundreds of lanes.”

(Essentially, Musk is saying that he could build so many tunnels that induced demand wouldn’t happen.)

"If this works out," Musk says, "there would be a lot of road space that can be converted into park space.”

Musk: "If you can build a tunnel in L.A., you can build it anywhere. … We’ve got seismic, we’ve got methane, we’ve got oil fields, we’ve got the water table, a very complicated regulatory environment, utilities everywhere. It’s a very complex thing.”

After running through some FAQ, Musk and director Steve Davis are taking questions submitted by the audience on an audience engagement website. Jehn Balajadia from the Boring Co. is reading some of the questions that received the most votes.

So far, the questions are tending toward topics that will help Musk's charm offensive -- "How much would it cost to travel from LAX to Sherman Oaks?” "Like, a dollar." -- and steering clear of the thornier questions, like the local lawsuit and environmental review.

EIR question! Musk is asked if he'd be willing to do one and responds, "We’re definitely going to do a full EIR for a much larger system." He goes on to say that the proposed so-called "proof-of-concept" tunnel in West L.A. would inform the full environmental review.

Last question; "Will you organize a big party before the tunnel launch?” Musk: “Of course. A tunnel would be a really trippy place to throw a party. It will be really fun, kind of pre- and post-apocalyptic, or something. Yeah. I think a party in a tunnel would be kind of fun."