What's Happening with the Teslas That Ply the Las Vegas Loop?

About the Las Vegas Loop, what's happening with the Teslas? When it was first announced, they were supposed to be autonomous. But they started out with drivers. Did they ever become driverless?

Nope. Three years after launching the transportation system under the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Teslas that poke through the expanding tunnel system still require drivers behind the wheel.

That said, according to Steve Hill, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO, the current goal is to implement some driver-assistance technology in the Loop by early 2025 (perhaps in time for CES), but as far as full autonomy goes, he had nothing to say.

And what is "driver-assistance technology?" That would be Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), but Tesla's FSD isn't fully autonomous. Tesla considers it to be in beta, though they call it "supervised," meaning driver supervision is necessary. From what we understand, Tesla owners with Autopilot are essentially beta testers for the car company.

According to a recent article on Electrek, an American news site dedicated to electric transportation that's known for its positive coverage of electric transportation in general and Tesla specifically, the long "delay in getting Tesla’s self-driving systems working in the closed, predictable, fixed-route environment" of the Vegas Loop casts some doubt on Tesla's claims that full autonomy for its cars is imminent.

In other words, even Teslas with FSD are unable to handle short one-way tunnels, which means actual drivers will be part of the Loop for the foreseeable future.

Our view: The Boring Company is great at digging tunnels. But the touted futuristic subterranean mass-transportation system in Las Vegas, designed to eventually encompass 93 stations and 68 miles of tunnels, is still just a few passengers in Teslas transported short distances under the Convention Center by decidedly human drivers.

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Kevin Lewis Sep-19-2024

Just in time to save Ukraine

Elon is giving up on electric cars and will soon unveil his new electric battle tank, the "Musk Ox."

Fumb Duck Sep-19-2024

Tram

Just put in tracks and a tram. It would still be electric and a whole lot cheaper.

jay Sep-19-2024

Trains

I worked for a rail company for a couple of years and was part of the industry PTC committee. PTC is positive Train Control. Every region has its own rules. When can a bell/whistle be rung ? seems people don't like loud noises at night,  how fast the train can travel when in a municipal area, around curves, bridges etc. The intent is that each train is overseen by a system that knows what the train is doing and can slow it or stop it if comms are lost. Each train passes back its position and then reports to all of the other railroads. So theoretically you should not have two trains colliding and if one train is stopped on a siding the controls should indicate that the switch to the siding is in the right position so a speeding train isn't diverted right into the back of another. 

With all that said the system is complicated, involves significant costs pertaining to the inter-rail-line comms and applies to everything rail. Musk or anyone else is going to avoid installing tracks.

Fumb Duck Sep-19-2024

Tram

Jay, what if the track was a continuous loop, like the monorail? Would all that sophistication still be necessary?

Hoppy Sep-19-2024

Foot long cars

Some routes could accommodate stretch Tesla Convertibles.

jay Sep-20-2024

Trains

Fumb, there is no straight answer to your question. For the most part it was a matter of then vs now. Anything existing could apply for an exemption but all new builds are pretty much in scope. You can still drive around that Ford-Model-T with manual steering and no seat belts. All new cars are required to have power steering and seat belts as its an established safety standard. 

Unique builds like the mono-rail were mostly exempt. The Vegas system uses rubber wheels on either side of a concreate guide so technically its not defined as a train. Loops or trams would be exempt provided there is but one unit on the track. Anytime there is a possibility of a collision Ie one tram ramming the back of the other due to operator error, medical emergency or malicious intent now needs to comply.

Question of the Day - 19 September 2024

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