By rssfeeds-admin 
Elon Musk, speaks at an unveiling event for The Boring Company Hawthorne test tunnel in December in Hawthorne, California. (Photo by Robyn Beck-Pool/Getty Images)
Despite the willingness of Las Vegas officials to roll over for an underground Loop, Elon Musk’s Boring Company wants more: mainly approval to bring Teslas above ground to compete with taxis and ride-shares.
The Nevada Current, a sister publication of the Tennessee Lookout, reports the Paradise Transportation Company, a subsidiary of the Boring Company, which plans to build the “Music City Loop” in Nashville, wants a Nevada license to offer “regular transportation” services from the Vegas strip to Harry Reid International Airport and other resorts, as well as 104 tunnel stations.
The report says Paradise would charge about half the price of a Lyft, Uber or taxi, potentially undercutting the competition.
Shockingly, an application Paradise Transportation filed in fall of 2024 tried to hide the Boring Company’s connection to the shuttle service request by using obscure names, the news outlet reports. Not until it filed a revised version late last year did people catch on to the relationship between the Boring Company and Paradise.
As Musk’s company jockeys for above-ground business, it’s still seeking permission to tunnel to the Vegas airport, and, oddly enough, the Federal Aviation Administration and federal environmental studies are the only hurdles keeping it from picking up an automatic 58 million riders annually, according to the report.
Never mind a ProPublica report showing the company built tunnels without permits for work on county property, dumped untreated water into storm drains and sewers, then was fined $112,000 – a pittance – over workers’ complaints about severe burns and muck spills. Boring is contesting those violations, according to the report.
Those are minor inconveniences as Boring and Musk drill their way into the hearts of leaders willing to capitulate for visitors to enjoy a seamless trip to Vegas where, no doubt, they will rake in hundreds of thousands at the Roulette tables, or maybe break even at best.
If it sounds too good to be true …
Back in Nashville, we’re finding out the Boring Company started floating tunnel ideas with Metro Nashville officials in May 2024. Mayor Freddie O’Connell didn’t attend that earliest meeting, and talk about a tunnel on the East Bank came and went without a serious proposal, according to the mayor’s office.
Yet, O’Connell’s office put together a list of 70-plus questions about the Nashville proposal for Boring to sort out before it announced plans at an airport gala event. The company didn’t respond this week when the Lookout asked whether it had any comment.
The mayor’s office asked about everything from cost and ownership to liability and emergency service plans. In short, who takes the blame if the project hurts someone or fails.
Gov. Bill Lee says Boring will bear the entire cost of the project. When someone says that, get ready to slap leather (that’s a wallet for those who’ve gone cashless).
One of the most interesting questions, though, dealt with escaping, which is critical for claustrophobic types.
The query says the tunnel width in Vegas allows only 3 inches between the vehicle door and tunnel wall, which is built for the size of a standard Tesla Model Y. Nevada sources tell me the tunnels are 12 feet, which should be wide enough to open car doors in case of an accident or medical crisis. It beats taking a ride in an MRI.
These people are smart enough to bore a tunnel through the desert and, presumably, through Tennessee limestone, though we’ll have to wait and see if it can be done without hitting irregular rock formations, underground water and Nashville utilities.
They claim to have 30,000 passengers daily using 2.2 miles of tunnels and five stations in Vegas.
But for the good of people who get antsy riding in a box up to the top of the St. Louis Arch or driving through the mountain tunnel between Tennessee and North Carolina, some sort of response would be helpful, especially when it comes to emergency responses into a 12-foot-wide tunnel through which traffic can travel only one direction at a time.
Don’t count on it.
The Boring Company provided little to no information at the July 28 announcement. And state officials haven’t been much better, directing all questions through the Governor’s Office, which is largely silent on the deal.
Boring proposals in Los Angeles, Chicago and other large cities didn’t come off quite as well when people opposed them.
Stockard on the Stump: Tennessee approves no-cost lease for launching Musk tunnel near Capitol
Similarly to Vegas, though, Tennessee appears to be bending over backwards for Musk’s company, first by fawning over the proposal at the airport, then by approving a no-cost lease three days later for a state-owned parking lot near the Capitol where tunneling is to be launched. The whole route, which could branch out to areas other than the Music City Center, Broadway and the airport, is said to be going under a long-term state lease in which Boring’s only responsibility would be to build it. And that leads to another question: Why is the state willing to give property to the richest man in the world?
Is this really designed to cut down on Nashville’s traffic congestion, which has nothing to do with the airport? (The mess at the airport is self-inflicted, not the fault of commuters.) Or is it an attempt to cozy up to Musk and, ultimately, President Donald Trump, even though they have an on again/off again relationship that appears to depend on which way the wind blows. Or whether Tesla sales are up or down.
A new era?
After two-plus years of turbulence, the Tennessee State University Board of Trustees named Dwayne Tucker as the school’s new president, removing the label “interim” from his title.
Tucker took over the post in December 2024 as part of a last-ditch effort to keep the state from taking over operations of the historically Black university, one of two land-grant institutions in Tennessee. He opted against taking a salary at the time, but considering he had to wade through shark-infested waters to draw enough money to keep the school operating, he should be due a bit of compensation.
“My focus remains on putting TSU on a path to sustainability,” Tucker said in a statement after the board’s decision.
No single person deserves the blame for TSU’s plight. The campus has been neglected for decades, in part because the state failed to fund it adequately. State and federal studies show it was shorted by $150 million to $540 million over a century, while a federal report found it was underfunded by $2.1 billion over 30 years.
Considering those numbers, there’s plenty of blame for everyone to shoulder. The legislature and Gov. Bill Lee softened the pain with a $250 million grant that is being used, in part, for daily operations as Tucker and staff embark on a long-term survival plan.
Maybe Tucker can put the past in TSU’s rearview mirror, sending a message to state leaders that the university doesn’t need micromanagement while also letting college officials know the campus isn’t their personal playground either.
“Carefree highway, let me slip away, slip away on you.” *
*Gordon Lightfoot, “Carefree Highway”
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