New tunnels coming for Vegas Loop; autonomous driving on horizon
Boring Co.’s Vegas Loop is making progress in tunneling operations and plans to implement autonomous driving aspects within the system by the end of the year.
The plan is to begin the early stages of autonomous driving within the system by the Tesla vehicles that are utilized in the system, Steve Hill, President and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority told the Review-Journal earlier this month.
“Hopefully this will get started just lightly, using a driver assistance tool by the end of this year,” Hill said.
There is still no timeline associated with when full autonomy will be implemented in the system, as the Boring Co. is in the process of expanding the tunneling of the Vegas Loop outward from the Las Vegas Convention Center loop.
Next two stations
The next Boring Co. Vegas Loop offshoot from the Las Vegas Convention Center is nearing completion.
The Westgate’s Vegas Loop station, just north of the convention center, is awaiting approval, Hill said.
“It will be open very soon,” Hill said earlier this month. “Not quite sure what that date is, but that will be open shortly.”
One of Boring Co.’s drilling machines, dubbed Prufrock, is now digging from the convention center’s central hall toward the Encore. It will make a stop at the convention center’s Silver Lot first, and then relaunch it at the convention center’s Bronze Lot, where it will cross over Desert Inn and create the second tunnel to Encore, Hill said.
“That will be happening over the next number of months,” Hill said. “I’m not quite sure exactly what the opening for the first Encore tunnel will be, but that will probably be relatively soon, as well.”
University Center Loop
Tunneling work is also occurring from a lot Boring Co. purchased last year, sandwiched between Paradise Road and University Center Drive, across from UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. That line will connect to Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, en route to the convention center. Crews reached Virgin in May and have since continued boring operations toward the convention center.
“It’s going well,” Hill said. “We have connected into the Virgin hotel there, in front of the porte cochere,” Hill said. “You can see Boring Co. activity at 4300 Paradise, which is right in front of the Embassy Suites there. So they’re going to recover one of the machines there and relaunch it there and the other one continues to come up Paradise.”
There isn’t a project time frame to when the University Center portion of the loop could come online, Hill said. This portion of the loop will become a useful option for those traveling to and from Formula One’s Grand Prix Plaza, especially during future Las Vegas Grand Prix races, this year’s not included.
The station near UNLV could also become the first way Vegas Loop users travel to Harry Reid International Airport. The Tesla model vehicles could surface at the station and continue down Paradise to the airport to drop passengers off and then pick up new passengers and head back toward the station where riders could continue to Virgin and then the convention center.
Full buildout
The Convention Center Loop, transporting conventiongoers among three stations across the Las Vegas Convention Center campus, and an offshoot to Resorts World are the only operating portions of the Vegas Loop. Full build out of the system includes 93 stations spread out across 68 miles of tunnel spanning portions of the Strip, downtown Las Vegas and neighboring areas, according to the Boring Co.
The Vegas Loop uses Tesla model vehicles, transporting passengers between stations via a point-to-point tunnel system.
There is no timeline for when full buildout will be reached on the Vegas Loop project.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.