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(CNN Business) - Elon Musk said Las Vegas is "hopefully" will have a fully operational underground commercial tunnel by 2020.
His idea of drilling underground tunnels to ease traffic in highly congested cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas initially began as a joke in 2016, but now it has become a full-fledged business called The Boring Company with several nascent projects in the major cities, including Chicago and Baltimore.
Musk tweeted Friday night that Boring Company is completing its first commercial tunnel in Las Vegas from the Las Vegas Convention Center to the Strip, before working on other projects.
- This is Elon Musk's solution for Los Angeles traffic
Musk and The Boring Company have been working to revolutionize the way people travel with the Loop and Hyperloop high-speed transport systems. The underground tunnels will transport people in cars or passenger “capsules,” which will allow travelers to avoid traffic and move through cities faster.
When completed, the Las Vegas project will consist of two tunnels, each approximately one mile long. Passengers will be transported through autonomous vehicles at a speed of up to 249 km / h (155 miles per hour), the company says.
As noted by insightful users on Twitter, Musk, who also founded the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, originally tweeted in March that the Las Vegas tunnel could be operational by the end of 2019. Then he tweeted in May that The company would start digging in two months, but it didn't really start until November.
The Boring Company did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
A spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority told CNN Business that Musk's fully operational 2020 deadline was in line with what was previously announced in November and that the tunnel would be completed in time for Consumer Electronics 2021 show.
"Nothing has changed in the planned development schedule," he said. "We just started in mid-November and we have its early completion for the CES 2021 show."
In December 2018, The Boring Company completed a test tunnel in Hawthorne, California, which is used to develop Loop and Hyperloop. Although Musk demonstrated a Tesla Model X that descended into the tunnel and drove for 56 km / h (35 miles per hour) during the opening night, he imagines the Hyperloop transport that will eventually reach 965km / h (600 miles per hour). If that happens, the US transportation I could see serious improvement, but many changing deadlines stand in the way of Musk for now.
Elon MuskLas VegasTunnelsThe Boring Company