He proposed them to stop the city from implementing a subway system (fuck that shit).
He first proposed them as being effectively a subway/hyperloop but then stopped when that cost too much money
He then turned them into just underground private roadways accessible only to teslas.
Fuck that shit. The problem the city was trying to solve wasn't "We need more highspeed roads" it's "We need to be able move more people". And musk torpedoed that with a pointless underground tunnel.
Subways would have been way cheaper to operate, served more locations, and would not have been this stupid exclusive system for tesla owners to show off an LED light display.
Have you seen the tunnels on Google maps? They are essentially a tunnel from one side of a parking lot, under the main street, to the entrance of the convention center across the road. A distance you could walk in 5 mins on street level, except your way is blocked by the 6 lane road without pedestrian crossing.
No, not enough revolutionary hi tech BS to showcase your electric cars to the public, and no potential to get into talkshows to brag how you "solved traffic" because you are such a brilliant mind... /s
I'm sure one could buy an old used Tesla that barely works.
Then drive it into the tunnel with a gas can and lighter on the passenger seat. Have a friend stand in the way blocking others from driving in behind you.
I wonder what would happen if it caught fire in the tunnel?
Would sprinkler systems take over? Would the tunnel burn and collapse as you walk out the other end so it's never used again?
Gas can would leave the wrong kind of residue and would exonerate the Tesla as a victim of a false flag eco terror attack. Use the inherent problems with lithium batteries to start a fire. A lithium fire is one of the types of fire that firemen will straight up avoid until the dedicated response unit arrives. A lithium fire will not leave survivors. It starts with an explosion and gets worse from there. Given enough time this happen naturally in that tunnel; it doesn't need help.