The Boring Company's Las Vegas Loop is a terrible project.
Calling Elon Musk a controversial figure is nothing but an understatement. After his purchase of Twitter (no, I'm not calling it X), his political beliefs and character have been thrust into the public spotlight much more than before. While I could talk for hours about why I dislike Elon Musk, I'd rather talk about the absolute embarrassment of a project the Vegas Loop is.
What is the Boring Company?
The Boring Company (or TBC) was founded in 2018 by Elon Musk based out of Los Angeles, California. The company was created with the goal of optimizing traffic by building tunnels underground. The tunnels would be served by autonomous electric vehicles to get passengers to their destination. The Boring Company created their own tunnel digging system to create these tunnels effectively and at a low cost.
All of this sounds great so far, so what's the problem? Well, I believe that this system is just a worse subway.
#1 - Capacity
This is probably the most glaring flaw in the system - the cars used in the Las Vegas Loop are the Tesla Model 3. These cars can hold up to 3 people, as they also require a driver. The New York City subway can seat 42 people per car, and hold an additional 198 people when standing. Multiple cars are usually attached to each subway, so the overall capacity per driver is much higher. Even buses, which hold less people, have a much better driver-to-passenger ratio. While right now it may have enough drivers, in times of economic crisis, the city may not be able to afford to pay drivers that only drive 3 people at a time down the loop.
Another problem with this is how personal each car is. The service is offered more like a taxi - and you probably wouldn't share a taxi with random strangers. Passengers riding solo will likely take one entire car up, adding traffic into the loop, as well as putting miles on the car. Buses and Subways go through extensive use, and driving takes a toll on the cars. However, they carry many more passengers, so the total passengers that have been serviced by the bus in it's entire lifespan is significantly higher than the amount of passengers that can be serviced by the car before it will need to be replaced. This will lead to longer term cost problems.