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Elon Musk’s Boring Company proposes tunnel system leading to LA Dodgers Stadium

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The Boring Company has unveiled a proposal to build a 3.6-mile tunnel system under Los Angeles designed to transport commuters to the Dodgers Stadium. Dubbed as the “Dugout Loop,” the tunneling startup’s project aims to transport people to the stadium in under 4 minutes.

The LA Dodgers Stadium is one of the city’s most prominent landmarks, where events such as games and concerts are held. The stadium in itself is massive, with a seating capacity of 56,000. Unfortunately for Los Angeles residents, getting to the Dodgers Stadium is nothing short of a traffic-inducing nightmare. During peak season, it is not rare to see vehicles being backed up for miles in seemingly unmoving traffic. This makes the travel time to the stadium, especially for commuters with their own cars, an unnecessarily long and aggravating affair.

This makes the LA Dugout Loop the perfect project for the Boring Company, a tunneling startup conceived by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk due to his experiences in traffic. The Boring Company is currently involved in several projects, the most prominent of which is the downtown Chicago-O’Hare high-speed transport system, which is expected to break ground as soon as its permits are completed. A test tunnel under SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne is also nearing completion.

The Boring Company’s proposed tunnel for the Dugout Loop. [Credit: The Boring Company]

The 3.6-mile Dugout Loop will begin at the Dodger Stadium property and run under Vin Scully Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. The Boring Company has not announced the starting point of the tunnel system, but there are currently three options being explored. All of these options — Vermont/Sunset, Vermont/Santa Monica or Vermont/Beverly — are selected specifically to be close to Metro Red Line stations.

The Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering (LABOE) has posted a document covering some of the finer details of Boring Company’s proposed project, including the design of the tunnels, how the electric pods in the Loop system will work, and the accessibility of the tunnels themselves. The document, which could be viewed in full here, notes that the Boring Company plans to use access shafts that would serve as tunnel access points for ventilation, emergency exit, and general access. These would be spaced approximately 0.5 miles apart, totaling about three to six locations located along the proposed Main Artery Tunnel alignment.

 

The transport pods would be stored in parking spaces, parking garages, or car racks at Loop Lift locations. Lastly, the LABOE document also mentioned that initially, commuters who wish to use the Dugout Loop would book timeslots online or on the phone in advance. Initial operations of the tunnel system would be limited to around 1,400 people, but depending on community feedback, the tunneling startup could increase ridership to about 2,800 people per event. The ability to purchase tickets for the Dugout Loop onsite is also on the table.

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The Boring Company’s proposed tunnel to the Dodgers Stadium has gained the support of some of the city’s officials. In a statement to WIRED, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti described the project as a good example of the private and public sector working together.

β€œIt’s a great example of public-private partnership. We always reimagine the future in Los Angeles. We’ve always looked for new ways to move around,” the LA mayor said.

Dodgers CFO Tucker Kain also expressed his support for the project, stating that the team is always supportive of novel ways to get fans to games in a more comfortable manner.

“We were excited when the Boring Company came to us with this project. Whether it is flying overhead in an aerial transit system or bypassing traffic through an underground tunnel, we are always looking for innovative ways to make it easier for Dodgers fans to get to a game. We are committed to working with our neighbors and fans as the project moves forward,” Kain said in a statement to ABC7.

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Construction of the proposed tunnel project is estimated to take about 14 months to complete. The tunneling startup is making its proposal for the Dugout Loop available for public review from August 16 to September 17. A hearing will also be held at the Dodgers Stadium on August 28.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Energy

Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can now do what only Cybertruck could

Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can power your home with Powerwall 3 during outages.

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Tesla has turned its two top sellers into backup batteries for the house.

Tesla Energy announced on Tuesday that Powershare Home Backup is now available for new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles paired with a Powerwall 3, saying the car can β€œextend your home backup by over 2 days.” Minutes later, Tesla’s main account quoted the post with a broader pitch: β€œWith Powerwall 3, every Tesla can now serve as your home’s backup battery.”

Until this week, the Cybertruck was the only Tesla that could send power back into a home, and that capability only began working alongside Powerwall 3 last month, after years of ambitious targets.

Tesla’s updated Powershare page says every Model 3 and Model Y ordered in the U.S. or Puerto Rico on or after October 1, 2026 can use the feature. Some, but not all, earlier cars also qualify. Owners can check on the touchscreen under Software, then Additional Vehicle Information, where a capable car shows β€œPowershare Support: Enabled.” As Electrek reported, bidirectional power on the two cars runs through an inverter Tesla calls PCS2 Lite, and the company has not said when that part entered production on each trim.

The home side is simpler. A house that already has a Powerwall 3 and either a Wall Connector 3 or Universal Wall Connector needs no additional equipment, and Tesla says compatibility is enabled through a software update. When the grid drops, the Powerwall and the car work together, with up to 11.52 kW of continuous power available. Tesla’s β€œover two days” estimate assumes a home using 30 kWh per day and a car starting at a 90 percent charge. Standard trims are rated for up to two days, while the Cybertruck adds more than three.

There are limits. Powerwall 2 and Powerwall+ support is listed as β€œcoming soon.” Model S and Model X are not included, and Grid Support, the program that lets Cybertruck owners in Texas send power back to the grid during demand spikes for bill credits, is not available for Model 3 or Model Y.

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The rollout also lines up with something Elon Musk said more than three years ago. At Tesla’s March 2023 Investor Day, Musk said, β€œI don’t think very many people are going to want to use bidirectional charging, unless you have a Powerwall.” Tesla has now shipped the feature for its volume cars with exactly that requirement attached.

The Powerwall pairing was the hard part on Cybertruck. Tesla told owners in December 2025 that Powershare with Powerwall had been pushed to mid 2026, and lead engineer Wes Morrill explained that two devices capable of forming a home’s grid have to negotiate which one leads during an outage, across multiple generations of hardware. With that work done for the truck, Tesla was able to extend it to the Model 3 and Model Y within a month.

Ford and GM have offered home backup from their EVs for several years, but both require a separate inverter and backup hardware. Tesla’s version leans on equipment many Powerwall 3 owners already have on the wall. Powershare for the two cars also ships as part of software update 2026.38.3, the same release that began delivering Halloween Mode on Tuesday.

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Tesla ships ‘spooky’ Halloween Mode with creepy and fun features

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is now starting to ship a “Halloween Mode” that is filled with some creepy and fun features; the company says, “This spooky update turns your Tesla into a haunted house on wheels.”

The update is just the latest in a series of updates that Tesla typically ships out in a seasonal fashion. The Spring and Summer Updates provided some fun novelty items while also packing some cool features that are actually useful for the ownership experience.

This one seems to be more fun-forward, and there are not any updates to the Full Self-Driving suite or overall operation of the vehicle. Instead, these novelty features are geared toward getting you in the mood for the Fall and Halloween.

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New Ghost Costume on Car Avatar

Driver Visualization will now show your vehicle as a ghost, as an all-white sheet is draped over the vehicle. Pedestrians are turned into mummies or skeletons, and other vehicles are all a spooky green:

Credit: Tesla

Additionally, the Park Scene with your Tesla now displays that ghost costume draped over your vehicle in the foreground of a scary backdrop with Jack-o-Lanterns and a haunted house:

Credit: Tesla

Trick or Treat Mode

Trick or Treat Mode will enable the vehicle to play spooky sounds and flicker the lights as visitors approach. This might be a nice touch for when you’re handing out candy to kids on Halloween Night.

Other Features

Tesla is also adding a new Light Show, new Wrap Options, and a new Lock Sound with this update.

Credit: Tesla

Additionally, Photobooth has a new Halloween option:

Credit: Tesla

You will also be able to speak remotely through the app and transmit your voice to people outside, which is not a new feature, but the car will say it in a voice of its own, which is a new feature with that bullhorn-like feature.

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Investor's Corner

SpaceX reveals how its 1 Million AI satellite network will work and prevent space collisions

SpaceX reveals plans for one million Starmind AI satellites and calls out operators hiding maneuvers.

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Concept rendering of SpaceX Starmind constellation via Grok
Concept rendering of SpaceX Starmind constellation via Grok

SpaceX has put the largest satellite count it has ever published into writing, and it says that plan only works if every other operator in orbit starts sharing what it knows.

In a new Space Safety page highlighted Tuesday morning by Sawyer Merritt on X, SpaceX said it “plans to operate up to 100,000 Starlink satellites and up to 1 million Starmind AI satellites to meet the growing demand for broadband and supercompute.” Starlink has a little over 11,000 satellites in orbit today, so the target alone implies roughly a ninefold expansion of the broadband network.

Starmind is SpaceX’s orbital AI compute constellation. Elon Musk confirmed the Starmind name in June after an xAI trademark filing surfaced, and in August SpaceX said it was working with Nvidia on the compute payload. The FCC accepted the filing for up to one million satellites back in February.

FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan

SpaceX also released a new render of what a full Starmind constellation could look like. Alongside it, SpaceX VP Michael Nicolls explained why the satellites will not operate on their own. “We need to operate clusters of satellites in tight formation to get enough coherent compute to run AI models efficiently,” Nicolls said. “A cluster will be 10-ish satellites connected with 10 terabits or so of bandwidth between them, and interconnected to the broader constellation.”

That is the most specific detail SpaceX has given on how Starmind will be built. Instead of a million independent servers, the network would work as tightly packed groups of about 10 satellites acting as one compute unit, with Starlink’s laser links carrying results back to Earth.

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Packing satellites that close together, at that scale, makes collision avoidance the central problem, and most of the Space Safety page is aimed at other operators. SpaceX said Starlink encountered collision risks with about 650 unique maneuvering third party satellites in 2026, and only about half of them shared data. Over six months, Starlink recorded roughly 164,000 more collision risks where the closest approach came within four hours of an unannounced maneuver.

Some operators keep maneuver plans private over proprietary concerns, while others cannot get government permission to share them. SpaceX called those policies “counterproductive,” saying they “largely only serve to create preventable collision risk between satellites.” Starlink is also offering a free ephemeris sharing and screening platform that returns risk results within a minute, backed by its Stargaze network of 30,000 optical sensors.

The push comes as the Starmind application draws opposition from astronomers and environmental groups. In a September filing with the FCC, SpaceX said each Starmind satellite could weigh up to 4,000 kg, nearly seven times the mass of a Starlink V2 Mini. Musk has brushed off crowding concerns before, telling viewers in June that “space is enormous” and that SpaceX already knows how to run very large constellations safely.

SpaceX’s Starmind page says its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, is designed to produce AI satellites at scale, with deployment of thousands of units starting as soon as late 2027.

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