As anyone who has lived there will tell you, the traffic in Los Angeles pretty much dictates when and where you go at all times. And that makes the city a fantastic choice for novel new transportation solutions, such as the underground tunnels proposed by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company. The latest indication of progress from the project shows a Tesla Model S lowering into the ground via some kind of elevator system, but the video post has since been deleted.

And Away We Go…

For those of you who may be unaware, The Boring Company was originally created as a joke because Elon Musk was tired of dealing with traffic in Los Angeles. Now, however, with over $100 million in equity raised and a prototype tunnel completed, the joke looks like it’s becoming a bona fide reality.

Basically, the idea is to direct traffic underneath the surface streets and into concrete tunnels, but to do that, you’d obviously need some method to get the cars underground in the first place. It would appear as though The Boring Company’s solution is some kind of elevator system.

The video was originally posted to Elon Musk’s Instagram account, but was later deleted.

We’ve seen this concept before, but this is the first time we’ve seen it outside the confines of a computer-generated graphic.

Eventually, The Boring Company wants to construct a series of tunnel networks to transport cars all over Los Angeles. Per usual for a Musk project, the scope is quite ambitious, with as many as 30 levels of tunnels envisioned to accommodate the millions of cars that occupy the city.

Once lowered into the tunnel, the cars would board an electric platform that would then whisk it away at speeds up to 130 mph.

For now, The Boring Company is starting with a tunnel under the SpaceX parking lot in Hawthrone, California. Musk threw a party last December to celebrate the the progress made and to show off the concept, running fans and journalists through the tunnel in a modified Tesla Model X at speeds just over 40 mph. However, when the tunnel is completed, it will run parallel to highway 405 and connect with highway 101 up north.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti seems eager to get the project going. With traffic congestion seen as an ever-present problem in the city, a proposal that would get folks from Westwood to Los Angeles in 5 minutes seems like a dream come true.

What’s more, the network would open up for mass-transit solutions that run parallel to the individual cars inside the tunnels. Musk believes the mass-transit solution will be quite inexpensive for riders, priced at just $1 per ticket.

Musk has also said he’s devoting just a small percentage of his time to the project. However, it’s still gaining a good deal of attention from the press, especially with regards to wild schemes like The Boring Company branded “flamethrowers,” which netted a cool $5 million after fans quickly scooped them up.

Why Was The Post Deleted?

It’s hard to say for sure, but there could be a number of reasons.

The first is that some overeager intern or assistant with access to Musk’s social media posted the video without his permission, and when Musk realized what happened, he promptly deleted it.

Another possibility is that Musk is simply trying to drum up more hype for The Boring Company, with last December’s launch party not quite accomplishing what he was shooting for. If a video was posted then deleted, the press is sure to pick it up and run with it, right?

Indeed, we could be looking at a bigger announcement forthcoming. Stay tuned.

What do you think about The Boring Company and the Los Angeles tunnels? Let us know in the comments section below.

Further Reading

Read our speculative review on the 2022 Tesla Model S.

Read our full review on the 2018 Tesla Model S.