Boring Co. Lands Contract for Chicago Underground Bullet Train

Elon Musk, the CEO of such companies as Solar City, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX, has recently been expanding his reach from outer space and green electricity to various other industries. One of his other companies, Boring Co., has become known for two main things: flamethrowers and high-speed tunnel travel. Musk's "Temperature Enhancement Device" (the name given to the flamethrower to avoid shipping regulations) has amassed huge popularity and thousands of the devices have already gone out to customers around the world. However, Boring Co.'s most exciting future development is a high-speed underground bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco. If the project ever reaches fruition, it could drastically improve the housing markets throughout the state. According to a Bloomberg article, Boring Co. just won a bid to develop a similar bullet train in Chicago, which could be a huge stepping stone for the future of Boring Co.

In working out the plans for this high-speed train, Musk has come to some sobering realizations. Where his original plan featured speeds of over 700 mph, designed for connecting cities that are a few hundred miles apart. After more research, it was concluded that the underground train from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport will travel at speeds of roughly 150 mph, still much faster than any other options, but not nearly as fast as Musk had dreamed. Even after the disappointing results, Musk still seems certain that his planned Hyperloop system will one day reach his high-speed goals, but for longer trips, such as Chicago to New York.

Even though Musk won't be able to get the Hyperloop design he wants, this Chicago project will still be great practice for the 18-month-old Boring Co. Many investors believe strongly in Musk's ability to get things done, but as the company has very little construction experience, it is good that they have the opportunities to figure out how to meet their promises of faster, cheaper, and less disruptive tunnel creation when compared to current technological options. So far, Boring Co.'s tech has only been tested in Hawthorne, but if it shows promising results in Chicago, that could be the kickstart the company needs to get its other projects in LA, New York, and Washington DC fully funded and moving forward.

Boring Co. won the Chicago bid partly because of the CEO's notoriety, but also because its bid was so much lower than all other competitor offers. In fact, because this is sort of a practice run for Boring Co., and a way to get more publicity, Musk's bid was to do the entire project for free. He predicts that it will cost somewhere around $1 billion, but is confident that he will have no problems in securing the necessary funding. Some Chicago officials have welcomed Musk with open arms, excited for the upcoming project, while others have loudly criticized the project as a bold political ploy by the current Chicago mayor. It may take a little time until the project officially gets underway, as the specifications and details of the project still need to be negotiated, but based on Musk's previous projects, the Chicago transportation arena has an exciting future.

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Washington D.C. Public Transit System Purchases Fleet of 14 Proterra Electric Buses

Technological innovations in this day and age, especially those in the realm of transportation, have been focusing more and more on green energy. From Tesla's cars to Nikola Corp's trucks, many companies are trying to steadily phase out the necessity of fossil fuels for long-distance travel. The problem with that goal is that, at the moment, green energy sources and vehicles that utilize those types of energy tend to be more expensive. To that end, the companies that focus on electric vehicles usually need some sort of governmental relationship to get off the ground. With Tesla, customers were able to get government rebates/subsidies after purchasing cars like Tesla's Model 3. According to Russ Mitchell's L.A. Times article, Proterra (a manufacturer of electric buses) sold 14 of its vehicles to the Washington, D.C., Circulator transit system earlier this month.

The complete cost of those buses was not reported, but Proterra's buses are known to cost somewhere between $700,000 and $900,000 each, so it's likely that this purchase cost D.C. quite a bit. On the one hand, spending millions of dollars on electric buses may seem exorbitant, but to another perspective, the fleet of buses serves to show millions of diplomats and tourists from around the world that the United States is working on developing technology with lower environmental impacts and better user experience. Though nearly a million dollars per bus is a lot of money, Washington D.C. gets tens of thousands of tourists each day who use the bus system to visit the various landmarks and museums.

Although Proterra is based out of Northern California, the company has a factory on each coast: one in the City of Industry, California, and the other in Greenville, South Carolina. The South Carolina plant has a perfect location to be accessible to the nation's capital, while the California plant is right in the center of all kinds of innovation going on in the state. The East Coast side of the business puts it in the view of politicians and lobbyists who make the decisions regarding public transportation around the country, and the West Coast side of the business has been able to draw from engineers and manufacturers already in the area for work in the aerospace industry.

Proterra doesn't have a monopoly on electric buses, though. California's plethora of skilled workers has made the Los Angeles area a hub for the development of electric buses and other such vehicles. Another company, called BYD, which is based out of China, has a factory in Lancaster. According to their own numbers, BYD has sold at least 722 buses, while Proterra has sold over 546. For such a pricey commodity, both companies seem to be doing relatively well in an industry that is fairly new. Even some universities are switching their bus systems to electric ones. There's no way to tell for sure, but it seems like the trend of electric buses could really take off throughout the nation in the near future.

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JetBlue Airlines Ranked Highest for Domestic In-Flight WiFi Capabilities

Technological improvements over time allow the general public to take advantage of certain amenities that were once only available to the wealthy elite. Personal automobiles were once few and far between, due to the exorbitant price tags and cost of upkeep. Over the years, via various production improvements and the development of cheaper and longer-lasting parts, automobiles have become commonplace. Another example is that of airplane travel. More and more people these days choose to travel by air rather than by ground because of its efficiency, reasonable price, and various amenities. One such amenity that's drawing in more customers, according to Hugo Martin's L.A. Times article, is free or low-priced in-flight WiFi.

Whether flying for business or for pleasure, customers want to have access to everything that they could have while traveling by another mode of transportation. For quite a while, people traveling via car, bus, and even train have been able to make calls, send text messages, and access mobile internet data at no extra charge. Until recently, the convenience and speed of an airplane had the drawback that travelers couldn't remain in contact with the outside world. For some travelers, especially those traveling for business, hours without their mobile devices could make a huge difference in their personal lives and careers.

Access to in-flight internet is a wanted amenity for most passengers, but that draws the question: how much are people willing to pay for the amenity? Research has found that customers feel cheated if an airline charges them a rate that is significantly higher than their home internet or mobile data, on a per megabyte basis. Of course, this expectation doesn't make much sense, given that there's a huge difference between the infrastructure that provides mobile internet on a cell phone and WiFi on a flying plane thousands of feet in the sky, but people want what they want.

Highspeedinternet.com made a ranking of the best airlines with respect to in-flight WiFi service. They ranked speed of connection, reliability, availability, and price, to come up with the sliding scale. In the end, they found that the airline with the best overall WiFi was found on JetBlue flights. JetBlue provides free 15 mbps internet to all passengers on 100% of its domestic flights. Southwest Airlines was ranked second, and has WiFi connectivity for $8 on 90% of its planes. Virgin America also provides 15 mbps connections, but for $25 per flight, so they are ranked even lower. Some industry leaders, like Hawaiian Airlines, Frontier, and Spirit Airways don't provide WiFi at all, putting them toward the bottom of the ranking.

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Rush Hour: A Thing of the Past?

8/4/14 - Don't you hate sitting in rush hour traffic on the 405 and 101 freeways, spending hours a week staring at brake lights and bumpers? Wouldn't life be so much easier if there were a bus or train able to bypass all of that congestion? Up until recently, the San Fernando Valley was a “no fly zone” when it came to light rails, a form of public transportation designed in a such a way that, since it has its own system of rails, it doesn't have to deal with the gridlock on surrounding freeways. An article by Laura Nelson of the L.A. Times discusses Governor Jerry Brown's reversal of a bill that, since the early 1990s, has prevented the development of a light rail in the San Fernando Valley.

Although Brown's signature has overturned the so-called “Robbins Bill,” Nelson states that this is only the first step on a long road to the development of a Valley light rail. The Valley, which contains only two of Los Angeles' 80 commuter rail stations, needs something more than buses to lessen traffic and convince drivers to choose more environmentally-friendly transportation options. According to this article, officials are looking into the costs and level of difficulty that would be present in attempting to connect the Valley's already existing Orange Line bus system, which is very similar to a “light rail” with the Red Line and Gold Line of other areas.

The possibility of a light rail, while exciting, is also not likely to bear fruit for quite a while. For such an immense project to be undertaken, according to Nelson, over half of Metro's directors would need to agree to the request for a light rail. While the Orange Line was a clever way to get around the restrictions against light rails, its use of a separate road and avoidance of traffic congestion has attracted so many new customers that it is seen by many as “overcrowded and inefficient.”

A light rail, while beneficial to its users, could also have a dramatic impact on drivers of the 405 and 101 freeways. With a high speed, zero congestion transportation option available, many commuters may choose public transportation, thus reducing gridlock on the freeways. The light rail, now a possibility, may still take years to approve, and years more to develop. Thus, the best option at present, especially for those living in the San Fernando Valley, seems to be such transportation options as the Orange Line, which is about as close as we will get to a light rail at the moment.

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