Elon Musk’s Las Vegas Loop is a fun theme park ride in disguise

It often feels like it’s impossible to get around Las Vegas, Nevada.

Short distances that seem walkable at first take two to three times longer to navigate than expected due to the ample walkways, bridges, barriers and, of course, crowds. Ubers are costly, with surge pricing galore, and the monorail is slow and inefficient. Sure, you could take a taxi, but who actually wants to do that?

This is where Elon Musk’s The Boring Company’s $52.5 million USD (roughly $71.8 million CAD) Las Vegas Convention Center Loop (LVCC Loop) comes in. In the future, additional planned tunnels will connect the Las Vegas Airport and Downtown Las Vegas to the Las Vegas Convention Centre, totalling 30km (19 miles) in distance.

The Loop’s tunnels are undeniably cool.

But for now, the only operational tunnels connect the following: Resorts World Station, LVCC Rivieera Station, LVCC West Station, LVCC Central Station and LVCC South Station (the Resorts World Tunnel is single-lane and outside the rest of the stations’ dual one-way tunnel system).

The pricey Tesla tunnel is positioned as a quick, cost-effective way to get between convention centre halls, and in a sense, it fulfills that promise. $5 USD (roughly $6.80 CAD) gets you a day pass, so if you’re attending an event at the LVCC and need to move between halls quickly, this is far better than walking or jumping in the back of an Uber (the Loop can cut a 30-minute trip down to 2-5 minutes).

My brief tour of the Loop took me past every station.

Here’s how it works. You get into the Loop through small stations that look sort of like a Cyberpunk 2077-esque take on a subway station, complete with an escalator, fluorescent lights and glowing gamer-inspired pink and blue lights. I walked down to the neatest lane, showed my day pass and jumped in the back of the next Tesla Model Y/X.

My rather talkative driver told me several facts about the tunnel, including the lofty claim that the Loop will be capable of moving more than 90,000 passengers per hour to various locations along the city’s main strip when it’s complete. Is this accurate? Who knows.

Hell ya. pic.twitter.com/MQzxAnhvQa

— Patrick O'Rourke (@Patrick_ORourke) May 16, 2024

My driver also said that all tunnel drivers are contract workers and that as far as a side job goes, driving for Musk’s tunnel is a decent gig that pays pretty well. My driver went on to say that while vehicles operating in the tunnel are driven by people, the goal remains for them to be autonomous eventually.

The actual tunnels are futuristic and full of eye-catching neon lights. Speeds are limited in the tunnel, but you still get that classic electric vehicle acceleration jolt, which is admittedly pretty cool, especially in the confines of a tight tunnel.

My driver was surprisingly friendly and talkative (he also seemed to be Elon Musk’s number one fan).

It’s important to point out that the almost $53 million spent on the Loop could have been used to expand Las Vegas’ current public transportation system significantly. There are also no accommodations for those with disabilities, limiting the Loop’s usefulness. Most importantly, moving 1-3 people in underground tunnels is a wildly inefficient form of transportation, especially compared to the number of people a traditional subway system transports. From that perspective, moving cars underground through a one-way tunnel in an effort to solve Las Vegas’ traffic congestion issues doesn’t make much sense.

Still, the Loop got me from point A to point B quickly during rush hour, and the overall experience was pretty chill. I’m also a fan of the LED lights lining the tunnel (because who doesn’t like a little RGB in their transit?). However, I question if this project can really expand beyond its current limited scope and if it does, how much will that construction cost? Tunnels aren’t cheap.

Image credit: The Boring Company

Currently, Las Vegas’ Loop is a fun, futuristic way of getting around a very limited city area, but it feels more like a fun theme park ride than an actual transportation solution.

With all of that said, I’ll definitely take advantage of the Loop the next time I’m at CES.