Tesla’s self-driving system is still not working in The Boring Company’s one-way tunnels under Las Vegas despite reportedly working on it for years.
But self-driving in Tesla vehicles on public roads is around the corner?
Tesla uberbulls often like to say that Tesla is the leader in self-driving because while it doesn’t have a commercially available autonomous ride-hailing service like Waymo, it doesn’t rely on geo-fencing and mapping like Waymo.
They argue that if Tesla wanted to do that it could, but it prefers to focus on an autonomous system that could drive anywhere, anytime, without mapping.
However, it is questionable that they could do it if they wanted to because they still haven’t done it on a project much simpler than Waymo’s operations in Pheonix and other cities: the tunnels under Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop is The Boring Company’s first full-scale loop project currently in commercial use.
Elon Musk’s tunneling start-up completed the $50 million project in just over a year.
A Boring Company Loop system consists of tunnels in which Tesla electric vehicles travel at high speeds between stations to transport people within a city. The Boring Company said that it was working with Tesla to use its self-driving system inside those tunnels, which would enables to get rid of the current drivers and lower the cost of operation.
However, 2 years and several more tunnels connected to the Loop later, The Boring Company is still using drivers in the tunnels.
Steve Hill, President and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention, told Las Vegas’s Review-Journal that the goal is to now have “some driver assistance tool” used in the Lopp by the end of the year:
“Hopefully this will get started just lightly, using a driver assistance tool by the end of this year.”
There’s no timeline for “full autonomy”, meaning without a driver involved.
Currently, only the three stations at the convention center and one at the Resorts World hotel are in operation. Another station connecting the network to the Encore is expected to open soon.
Overall, 93 stations and 68 miles of tunnels are planned as part of the Loop under Las Vegas.
Electrek’s Take
I like The Boring Company. Tunnels are a smart solution for increasing transport capacity in urban areas, and if the startup can reduce the cost of tunneling, it’s a net positive overall.
However, the way they use the tunnels right now, with drivers transporting a few passengers in Tesla vehicles in those one-way tunnels, doesn’t seem to be the best use. I think as of now, a subway system would be more useful.
If the vehicles were self-driving, it would make more sense. Tesla has supposedly been working with the Boring Company on this for years, but it is still not in use.
It doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in Tesla FSD if they can’t get it to work single-direction, zero-traffic, no weather, zero-obstruction fixed-route. It’s quite literally the easiest use case possible.
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