Elon Musk wants to get us to Mars, but recently completed a complicated challenge here on Earth: Figuring out how to solve the congestion of foot traffic that plagues Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) announced this week that it is recommending using Musk’s The Boring Company to design and construct a new transportation option designed to help people more quickly navigate Las Vegas’ busy streets.
The proposal would help in an effort to connect the Las Vegas Convention Center to the rest of the downtown area, as well as the Las Vegas Boulevard Resort Corridor, McCarran International Airport, and other hotspots throughout the city. The Boring Company would accomplish that by building a loop of underground express route tunnels that would be traversed by high-speed electric vehicles. Those vehicles would carry passengers from destination to destination, cutting down on congestion caused by excessive foot traffic and offering a speedy alternative to walking or hailing a ride.
“The selection of The Boring Company for the Las Vegas Convention Center’s on-property, guest transportation solution leads the way to the evolution of transportation overall in Southern Nevada,” LVCVA CEO and President Steve Hill said in a statement. “Our destination thrives on innovation and reinvention and The Boring Company’s concept allows us to continue providing the world-class experience our guests and clients have come to expect and move people in an efficient and cost-effective manner with advanced technology.”
There’s certainly no shortage of visitors to justify the transportation solution. According to the LVCVA, the city had more than 42 million visitors during 2018. The Las Vegas Convention Center hosted more than a million convention attendees alone and is expected to see more as the venue undergoes a 200-acre expansion. That is set to be completed by 2021, and they hope to have the new transit option from The Boring Company ready to go by the time the expansion is ready to be open.
“We are excited to work with the LVCVA to provide a world-class mass transit system in Las Vegas,” Steve Davis, president of The Boring Company, said in a statement. “Upon approval, it can be in use by Las Vegas Convention Center guests within one year, supporting the LVCVA’s expansion timeline.”
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.