What They Say
Tesla invited local reporters to have a look at the new tunnel under the LVCC that will use Tesla’s electric cars as taxis to move passengers between three stations. The tunnel was built in around a year by Elon Musk’s Boring Company. At the moment there just 11 or so taxis, but eventually there will be more. The company is also looking at extending the tunnel system under Las Vegas and there is said to be a lot of interest from locations in Las Vegas that want to be connected to the network and are ready to build ‘stations’. At the moment, the taxis are being driven by humans but there is an intention to make the cars autonomous, eventually.
Samsung has some big displays at the stations that are available to advertisers. The facility had been planned to be launched at CES 2021, but, of course, that only happened as a virtual event.
What We Think
As a veteran of almost forty years of attendance at events in the LVCC, from Comdex in the early ’80s, I have seen the massive expansion of the facilities. Although the monorail in Las Vegas has not been a financial success, I have used it a lot over the years. I used to stay at a non-casino hotel near the MGM Grand, which was at the end of the line and used the system to get to the Venetian/Sands and the LVCC (until the hotel was bought and ‘upgraded’ along with the prices!). Anything that helps move people around has to be good news. Those that don’t understand the scale of the LVCC and plan accordingly can find themselves covering huge distances on foot to get from one end to the other.
I can’t say that I think this is a particularly efficient way to move lots of people quickly, but the use of cars rather than trams, trains or buses does look particularly ‘Las Vegan’. (BR)
