‘A neoliberal nightmare’: my ride on the Vegas Loop – Elon Musk’s answer to traffic jams
‘A neoliberal nightmare’: my ride on the Vegas Loop – Elon Musk’s answer to traffic jams
A neoliberal nightmare - On a typically radiant day in Las Vegas, I found myself seated inside a Tesla vehicle, 30 feet beneath the city’s shimmering skyline. The experience, though brief, felt like a glimpse into a future that promised to revolutionize urban mobility. Yet, as I traversed the dimly lit tunnel, the sense of innovation was undercut by a quiet realization: this was not the high-speed, seamless transport system Elon Musk had envisioned. Instead, it offered a somewhat disappointing journey through a narrow, white-walled passage, where the only motion was the slow crawl of the car itself, limited to a speed of 30mph.
Elon Musk’s concept for the Vegas Loop was meant to showcase the potential of subterranean transit networks. In 2017, he unveiled a series of futuristic visuals, depicting a car seamlessly detaching from surface traffic and descending into an underground system. The imagery was striking: vehicles gliding on “electric skate” technology at 200km/h, a speed that would transform urban congestion into a distant memory. “There’s no real limit to how many levels of tunnel you can have,” Musk claimed, suggesting a scalable solution to alleviate traffic in any city. But reality, as I soon discovered, has a way of softening even the boldest of promises.
The Boring Company’s Bold Beginnings
At the time of its launch, the Boring Company was positioned as a disruptive force in infrastructure. Musk’s initial excitement, often conveyed with his signature blend of confidence and irreverence, captured public imagination. In a viral tweet months before the project’s announcement, he humorously declared, “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging …” The tweet was followed by a more serious statement: “I am actually going to do this.” The vision was grand, the execution less so.
From the outset, the Boring Company seemed to blend serious ambition with playful provocation. In 2018, Musk capitalized on this duality by selling 20,000 flame-throwers and 10,000 baseball caps under the company’s brand. The novelty of the products, combined with Musk’s charisma, made them a hit among fans and investors alike. By 2022, the company had achieved a valuation of $5.7bn, despite its limited progress on large-scale projects. While test tunnels were being constructed in Los Angeles and Texas, the broader rollout appeared to stall, leaving many skeptical about the feasibility of Musk’s vision.
A Underground System That Feels Half-Baked
Las Vegas, however, has become the only city where the Boring Company’s ambitions have taken tangible form. The Vegas Loop, as it’s now called, connects two ends of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), a distance of roughly a mile. The system’s design, though ambitious, reveals its constraints. Each vehicle operates in a single-direction tunnel, meaning drivers must wait for oncoming traffic before proceeding. The lack of a fully automated, bidirectional flow suggests that the project’s current scope is more about proving the concept than delivering a complete solution.
Passengers are required to book a Tesla, which is standard-issue and devoid of the futuristic “electric skate” technology Musk had once boasted about. The vehicles are accessed via taxi-like stations, both above ground and below the resort hotels, creating a hybrid of public and private transport. Ticket prices are modest—$4.25 for a single trip or $12.50 for a day pass—but the system’s capacity is limited. On my visit, only four Teslas were in operation, a number that seemed unnecessarily high for the low volume of riders. “It really doesn’t have that much utility,” remarked Ray Delahanty, a former traffic engineer and urban planner who has since become a vocal critic on social media. His YouTube video, titled “The Vegas Loop is getting progressively more stupid,” highlights the system’s shortcomings.
The Vegas Loop’s underwhelming nature is not surprising to those familiar with Musk’s tendency to overhype ideas. His ventures—self-driving cars, Mars missions, and humanoid robots—have often faced delays or unmet expectations. Yet, the Boring Company represents a different kind of challenge: not just technological, but political and economic. Musk’s influence and media savvy have shielded the project from traditional scrutiny, allowing it to proceed with minimal oversight. This has led to a situation where the company’s success is measured in public perception rather than concrete outcomes.
While the initial concept of subterranean transit was compelling, the Vegas Loop’s execution has been more about spectacle than substance. The LED strips lining the tunnels attempt to inject a touch of Vegas glamour, but their rapid color changes feel more like a distraction than a meaningful enhancement. The tunnel itself, narrow and barely accommodating the vehicles, offers little in the way of comfort or efficiency. As one driver explained, the system becomes busier during events, but on a quiet day, it feels almost obsolete.
A Symbol of Muskism in Action
Despite its modest scale, the Vegas Loop serves as a microcosm of Musk’s approach to innovation. He often blends utopian aspirations with practical challenges, creating a narrative that is as much about branding as it is about technology. This has led to a situation where the project’s viability is debated, yet its continued operation is supported by a loyal fanbase and political allies. “The trillionaire’s credulous admirers seem to insulate him from criticism,” Delahanty noted, pointing out how Musk’s reputation for boldness has overshadowed the practical questions of cost, scalability, and user experience.
The Boring Company’s journey from idea to reality reflects the broader tensions in modern urban planning. While Musk’s vision of a high-speed underground network is technically plausible, its current implementation appears to be a stopgap measure. The company’s early projects, which included plans for tunnels in cities like Washington, Chicago, and San Jose, have either been delayed or abandoned. This leaves Las Vegas as the sole test case, though the city is on the verge of expanding the Loop’s reach. Whether this marks a turning point or a further demonstration of Musk’s tendency to overreach remains to be seen.
In the end, the Vegas Loop is more than just a transportation experiment—it’s a testament to the era of “Muskism,” where hype often precedes practicality. While the system may not offer a true alternative to public transit, its existence challenges the public to reconsider what is possible. For now, it’s a slow, isolated ride through the underground, but one that could signal the beginning of a more ambitious phase for the Boring Company. As the tunnels expand and more vehicles join the network, the question remains: can this “answer to traffic jams” ever live up to its promise, or will it remain a neoliberal fantasy buried beneath the city’s surface?