It’s not just Teslas that walk through Elon Musk’s steps under the Las Vegas Convention Center, driving passengers as part of a public transportation experiment that began in 2021.
The skateboarder entered the tunnel through one of the secured passenger ports, forcing the crew to briefly tell the drivers to stand by while they got the person out.
Someone entered through another station when the transit system was not working, and began taking photos underground until security arrived.
Then, there are the unauthorized cars that repeatedly circle the Teslas in the station, sometimes entering the automatic security doors that have the opportunity to close behind.
Disruption has become a headache for the Boring Company, which built and operates the 2.4-mile underground network known as the Loop. People break the rules by going where they shouldn’t, forcing the company or convention center to step in and evict them.
There have been up to 67 cases of overtaking since 2022. And since the beginning of last year, 22 cars have followed Teslas in stations or tunnels, according to reports from the Boring Company. Fortune obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
In monthly reports it submits to the agency, Boring discloses problems such as property damage, theft, technical issues, or injuries, near-misses, and errors or intrusions. In addition, it provides a brief description of what happened, such as the vehicles carrying Tesla to enter and then the professional staff escorting unauthorized vehicles out. The release does not say whether the perpetrators tried to evade capture, or what reasons they gave for being on the device. Some of the incidents appear to be accidental, and most of them occurred in underground stations or buildings, and not necessarily within the tunnels themselves.
Of the cars that skidded on the site, all did so “unintentionally,” according to a spokesman for the convention and visitors authority. Their drivers followed the Boring Company vehicles “thinking they were arriving at a pickup truck or entering a parking lot, they were immediately kicked out.” One such incident “resulted in road encroachment,” the spokesman said.
To avoid problems, the authorities with the Boring Company have installed a license plate reader that closes the entrance gate if it does not recognize the license plates of vehicles entering the upper station. The authority also said “it is working hard [the Boring Company] to eliminate the possibility of inadvertent entry.”
No records were provided that revealed whether The Boring Company ever called the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police about the violation. He was caught by Fortunethe police spokesperson said they do not know anything about the incidents the police were sent by the department.
The Boring Company did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
The tunnel system is a far cry from the elevated, high-speed, and autonomous hyperloop system Musk originally hoped to build with his tunneling project. Musk envisioned global urban science systems that would shoot pods carrying passengers through underground tubes at hundreds of miles per hour.
But while Boring continues to develop a new type of drilling machine, it has yet to develop a hyperloop or new transportation technology. Instead, Boring built its own transportation system in Las Vegas that uses low-tech human-driven Teslas to transport passengers underground, without any traffic on the highways. Boring held talks with officials about canal projects in many other cities, including Baltimore and Chicago, but got nowhere, and Boring now set his sights on the Las Vegas project.
Behind the scenes, former workers who dug the first tanks in Las Vegas expressed great concern about their safety while doing so, and there have been many injuries as the company moves quickly to expand its system, as Fortune was reported earlier this year. In another snafu, Boring workers dug near a pillar of the Las Vegas monorail, and officials at the convention center briefly shut down the tracks to determine if the pillar was unstable.
Boring currently employs 204 other drivers to transport passengers in various Tesla models below the Convention Center, according to records from June. Between the opening date in June 2021 and Nov. 2023, more than 2 million travelers used the system, according to the convention and tourist authorities, and the agency reports the highest customer satisfaction scores.
From what was reported, regular passengers caused fewer problems. This includes the occasional discomfort when someone bangs their head on the Tesla trunk while reaching for their load.
Currently, the tunnel transportation system is open to conference attendees, and not the public. Boring has begun opening and operating stations outside the Convention Center area, but those routes are still connected to the existing tunnel system and are paid rather than free. The company is working to get a permit from the City of Las Vegas to begin building 68 miles of road under the city and in other parts of the region, including at the airport.
The Boring system he built in Las Vegas—little lanes with funky pink, blue, and green lights—has captured the public’s attention. This includes people who shouldn’t be in them.
In one incident, two people were found sleeping in one of the tunnels near one of the convention’s parking lots. They were then escorted from the house by Boring’s Security. In one incident, a man tried to get rid of a license plate reader at a Boring station, and convention center security escorted him from the lot.
Remember, when riding the Loop, be sure to follow the rules. Riders have their documents to attend the meeting with them. And no skateboarding or just wandering the streets.
Do you have an insight to share? Do you have an idea? Contact Jessica Mathews at jessica.mathews@fortune.com or through the secure messaging app Signal at 479-715-9553.
More coverage from Fortune on The Boring Co.:
– ‘We have always played with death’: Elon Musk wanted Boring Co. build a tunnel system below Las Vegas. The former employees say they feared for their lives while working there
– Employees of Elon Musk’s Boring Co. they accidentally dug near a support column for the Las Vegas monorail last year, forcing officials to temporarily halt work.
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