Intruder Drives Vehicle Into Elon Musk’s Weird Tunnel

"The driver of the unauthorized vehicle was cooperative and eventually escorted from the system."
Vehicles that are not authorized

According to documents obtained TechCrunch, an intruder drove their vehicle into The Boring Companys Loop in Las Vegas. TechCrunch documents reveal that the unauthorized vehicle was able to pass security on June 21.

As a result, the Elon Musk-led firm had to call the Las Vegas Metro Police.

TechCrunch quotes an email that TechCrunch has cited as saying that the Loops operations manager and Clark County official negotiated with the driver of the unauthorized vehicle and they were eventually taken out of the system.

This bizarre incident shows that the system may have unexpected security flaws only months after it was opened to the public. They have nothing to do the fleet of Tesla cars racing through tight tunnels with passengers.

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Crowded Tunnels

TechCrunch obtained emails indicating that The Boring Company plans to increase the number Tesla vehicles in the tunnel, from 62 to 70. The company also requests to use Tesla's Autopilot software to manage the vehicles. The autonomous driving feature is not yet activated.

In an email to Jerry Stueve (director of Clark County Department of Building & Fire Prevention), Steve Davis, president of Boring Company, argued that Tesla's lack of these features increases the chance of an accident.

Not autonomous

Davis had to also explain that Autopilot doesn't actually allow vehicles to drive themselves. However, the features require a attentive driver who is always ready to take control of the steering wheel.

Although Autopilot can be confusing and could refer to many things depending on vehicle and situation, Davis wrote to Stueve an amazing admission that the features names are confusing. Musk strongly disagrees.

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Autopilot has been implicated in several high-profile crashes over the past few years. This led to an investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Driving on public roads is very different to driving in a tunnel with a single lane. The Boring Company has an argument to support lane-keep assistance and traffic aware cruise control.

It is not clear whether this will result in fewer unauthorized intruders entering its tunnels. That would be a completely different discussion. Safety is safety.

READ MORE: Elon Musks Loop Gets Autopilot and Intruder [TechCrunch]

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