As an alternative to the 15-minute walk in the sun between the central and western halls of the CES, an underground tour allows you to be teleported, or almost, aboard a Tesla in an underground tunnel. A taste of Elon Musk’s urban alternative solution.
Source: Nicolas Valeano for Frandroid
The light and sound atmosphere reminiscent of amusement parks begins with the escalator that descends into the underground hub, leading to the Tesla who crisscross the tunnel imagined by their Elon Musk. In a silent broom, a dozen Model 3 and Model X drop off their customers and leave as in a station or airport taxi stand, less chaos.
A course of 2.7 km
That day, no traffic jams in sight (but not for everyone), but a sustained activity. An employee gives me the car number and I climb into the front of a Model X, along with two other masked passengers. A tablet under the main screen displays the tunnel route and some service indications for our driver, who receives instructions by earpiece: he must go through the south station before taking us to our destination, a waste of time of 2 minutes. We can survive …
Source: Nicolas Valeano for Frandroid
This is the opportunity to experience the entire route of the First Loop, along the LVCC Las Vegas Convention Center, with a total length of 1.7 miles (2.7 km). And to see that you can easily pass a station without stopping, which is crucial when the network develops: it is not an omnibus but an express transport from point A to point B.
No Autopilot
The entry into the hose recalls the feeling that one can have in the subways without a driver, when one can look out the front window. The round section of the tunnel is a bit wider than the car but here the driving is done without Autopilot. It is forbidden, explains our driver: “ I had the impression of retaking my license by doing the tests requested here. They made us do the whole tunnel in reverse too “. Because here, it’s impossible to turn around, not even like Austin Powers … So in the event of a breakdown, it’s more like: ” Austin (Tesla’s headquarters),we got a problem!“.
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We drive at a modest speed that day: 25 mp / h, or 40 km / h maximum, smoothly and at a good distance from the car in front. No feeling of claustrophobia in this very clear and curved tunnel, the end of which cannot be seen on the horizon, since the other stations are at street level, after a slope like a parking access ramp.
Efficiency and safety at the rendezvous
We are between the impression of being in a taxi or in a metro, but thewrinkledlasts so little time that you can’t think about it too much: you have to give way to the next passengers. This is an experiment which is worth a test here under easy conditions, but it is already an improvement if one thinks of the media shuttles which have to make their way through the crowds between the halls of classic car shows. Here, efficiency and safety are clearly at the rendezvous.
The Las Vegas network is expected to expand, first to a nearby hotel, then across the city. And it is there that it will take all its value, freeing itself from the usual traffic jams, especially in times of big shows like the CES. But that was before. This year, underground and on the surface, at least from the point of view of automobile traffic, Las Vegas offers peaceful and fluid traffic.
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