Elon Musk’s most recent company, The Boring Company has just had a major change of mission statement. Previously the company was tasked with reducing the cost of tunneling underground to create a space for electric sleds carrying cars in tunnels to speed up transport and reduce above-ground congestion.
With a few tweets this morning Musk has announced the priority is now transporting people. This seems like a philosophical change of heart as he lists the benefits should be afforded to all people, not just those who can afford cars.
Musk went on to share a new animation of the people pod that gets lowered below the ground, then uses the same electric skate idea, but instead carrying people. To be honest, it looks fantastic, with the speed of travel exceeding 200km/hr, much faster than Australian trains.
Better video coming soon, but it would look a bit like this: pic.twitter.com/C0iJPi8b4U
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2018
Here’s Musk’s original Tweet which we assume was communicated internally before being announced publicly. It looks like the system will still support cars, but they’ll take second place in the design, behind transporting people. After watching the animation, this needs to come to Australia yesterday.
Will still transport cars, but only after all personalized mass transit needs are met. It’s a matter of courtesy & fairness. If someone can’t afford a car, they should go first.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2018