Tesla Working On 12 Person Vans For The Boring Company
June 4th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan
Original renderings of potential Tesla/The Boring Company shuttles, courtesy Tesla/The Boring Company. Not necessarily similar to the vans referenced in the article below.
The Boring Company has reportedly been approved to build an airport loop for the Ontario International Airport.
Perhaps the more interesting thing about the story, though, is that Tesla is reportedly working with The Boring Company to produce 12-person electric vans for such routes. Presumably, they could be autonomous.
Again, these are not necessarily similar to the aforementioned vans, but they are original renderings of potential shuttles for The Boring Company:
The airport loop would connect Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario International Airport. The Board of Directors of the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority unanimously approved the idea on June 3, according to local newspaper The Orange County Register (The OCR). However, a more complete proposal needs to be formulated.
At the same time as this, the board voted to “postpone a $3 million study of other airport-rail connections.” The reason given is that the tunnel concept from The Boring Company looks much cheaper and faster than anything above the ground (potential rail projects).
Not a van.
Support for the project didn’t come out of the blue or out of a Zoom call. San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman reportedly “introduced the idea to SBCTA after touring The Boring Co. facility in Hawthorne and taking a ride in a modified Tesla through the test tunnel there.”
Much more local details and discussion of the alternatives are available at The OCR, reporting by Steve Scauzillo. Here are just a few more details regarding the tunnel The Boring Company pitched:
- 2.8 miles in length
- 14 feet in diameter
- 35 feet under the surface
- utilized by vehicles (presumably produced by Tesla) with rubber tires that go up to 127 mph (204 km/h)
- rides take 90 seconds to 2 minutes
Thanks to a couple of Twitter friends, Not_an_Analyst and Viv, for the tip.
Tesla is reportedly working on a 12 person van for the Boring Company
A small project or is this the Tesla sprinter van/Model V???$TSLA https://t.co/pDmHDleOV5 pic.twitter.com/BRABC5uoEg
— Not_an_Analyst (@facts_tesla) June 5, 2020
The Airport Loop will cost an estimated $60M, which is *considerably* less than the $1-1.5B light-rail extension San Bernardino County previously considered, and it could be built in 3-4 years rather than the 10 years it would take to extend light rail, according to SBCTA
— Viv 🐉 (@flcnhvy) June 5, 2020
One more thanks to Steve Scauzillo for the original coverage at The OCR.
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About the Author
Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in NIO [NIO], Tesla [TSLA], and Xpeng [XPEV]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.
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