Preview — and Take a Virtual Ride in — Las Vegas Loop

A friend of LVA participated in the first full test with passengers of the Las Vegas Loop last week and shared with us some of the system’s salient points for us to share with you.

Of the 62 Teslas, most are Model 3s and Ys (driver, plus three passengers), some are Xs (four passengers), but none are Model S cars. All are standard vehicles and some have Nevada license plates, some California, and some none.

All cars are fully controlled by drivers; the Loop doesn’t use the lane-keeping function and the drivers don’t employ any autopilot features.

Drivers go through training and have to pass a series of tests, including navigating the full length of the tunnel in reverse in case a car ahead stalls. They earn $17 an hour. (Not sure, so far, about any tipping policy.)

The Loop has three passenger stations: two above ground at the South and West Halls; the one below ground at the Central Hall is accessible via escalators and an elevator.

The maximum speed allowed is 40 mph on the straightaways and 30 in turns. The tunnels are so short, it wouldn’t make sense to go faster. The distance between Central and the end stations is eight-tenths of a mile. It takes less than 90 seconds to go between Central and end stations, three minutes to go from the West to South stations without stopping at Central. The goal is to unload and load a car in less than 25 seconds. Passengers are asked to leave the door open after exiting the vehicle and fasten their seatbelt during the ride.

You can take a 74-second virtual in the shotgun seat from the South Station to Central here.

Meanwhile, the Boring Company is already working on the new station at Resorts World and the tunneling is expected to start soon.

The new-generation boring machine, dubbed “Prufrock,” is six times faster than the ones that dug the Convention Center tunnels. It’s also more efficient, launching from the surface, tunneling underground, then re-emerging at the other end of the tunnel, a system known as “porpoising.” This allows Prufrock to begin tunneling within 48 hours of arrival onsite and eliminates the need to excavate expensive pits to launch and retrieve the machine.

Prufrock is designed to tunnel a little more than one mile per week, which is more than enough to bore the tunnels to Resorts World in a couple of days, since Prufrock has only to tunnel under the Strip. When the machine gets fully up to speed, it will move at 1/10th of human walking speed (which is approximately seven miles per day), meaning Prufrock could tunnel three-quarters of a mile in a day.