Connect with us
the-boring-company-las-vegas-resorts-world-3 the-boring-company-las-vegas-resorts-world-3

News

The Boring Company to purchase land from UNLV for Vegas Loop station

(Credit: Resorts World)

Published

on

The Boring Company is expected to purchase 1.3 acres of land near the Thomas & Mack Center from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Located on the corner of Tropicana Avenue and University Center Drive, the property, which currently serves as a parking lot, is expected to host a Vegas Loop station. 

A land agreement is set for review at the meeting of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents on March 9. If approved, the Boring Company Loop station will “provide service from the UNLV campus to multiple destinations, which will likely include the convention center, Las Vegas Boulevard, and possibly Allegiant Stadium, Harry Reid International Airport, and LVMD,” as per a briefing paper on the proposed project.

NSHE documents suggest that The Boring Company initiated the land deal as part of its efforts to build out the Vegas Loop system. The Boring Company is determined to purchase the parcel of land at a fair price. “The sale price will be no less than the appraised value of the property, to be determined by a licensed real estate appraiser(s), in accordance with Board of Regents’ policies and procedures,” the document read. 

The briefing paper on the Loop station also highlighted a key benefit for the proposed Vegas Loop station, particularly for UNLV students. “The location of a Vegas Loop station on the Property will provide students with another transportation option for accessing employment centers throughout the Las Vegas valley,” the paper read.

Provided that the proposal is approved, the purchase and sale agreement for the upcoming Vegas Loop station will be completed sometime in June. The ULNV station could serve as a connector to Allegiant Stadium and the Las Vegas Convention Center once the Vegas Loop is built out further, as noted in a report from the Las Vegas Sun

The filing also noted that the Vegas Loop system has earned a gold standard award from the US Department of Homeland Security. This is an important designation, as the system requires Homeland Security approval for SEAR Level 1 events, as noted in a Las Vegas Review-Journal report. SEAR Level 1 represents the highest threat level classification for an event, such as the Super Bowl.

Advertisement
-

“Clark County and the City of Las Vegas voted unanimously to support the Vegas Loop transportation system. The Vegas Loop project also received a “gold standard” award from Homeland Security. The Vegas Loop stations and tunnels will have security cameras that will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The system will serve as a personalized mass transit option consisting of 69 planned stations incorporated into a 65-mile tunnel system. As now envisioned, once fully operational, the Vegas Loop system will serve up to 57,000 passengers per hour at a sample fare rate of $6.00 to $12.00,” the document read.

The Boring Company’s Vegas Loop is expected to comprise 69 stations throughout Las Vegas Boulevard, downtown Las Vegas, and other notable locations. The Las Vegas Convention Center, which already hosts a working Loop system, is expected to serve as a central charging station for the Teslas used in the transportation network. 

Below is the briefing paper for the Vegas Loop station.

BFF-12 by Maria Merano on Scribd

The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.

Advertisement
-

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla’s two defunct flagship models are getting a big upgrade

Published

on

Tesla’s two recently-defunct flagship models, the Model S and Model X, are getting a big upgrade, according to the company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy.

Older Hardware 3 Model S and Model X vehicles have been the last major holdouts in Tesla’s Full Self-Driving v14 Lite rollout, and that wait now appears to be ending.

Tesla brings closure to flagship ‘sentimental’ models, Musk confirms

At Tesla’s Cybercab launch, AI chief Ashok Elluswamy told Ryan McCaffrey that he thought the S and X build “was supposed to go out last week.” Evidently, Elluswamy expects the suite to be rolled out to those HW3 Model S and Model X very soon:

Those cars are not the current Model S and Model X, which already ship with Hardware 4. They are the pre-refresh flagships built around Tesla’s older Autopilot computer, often called HW3 or AI3.

Tesla stopped putting that computer in new vehicles years ago, which is why owners treat these S and X cars as a closed generation. Model 3 and Model Y vehicles on the same computer began receiving v14 Lite in late June 2026 and saw a wider North American expansion in July. South Korea followed as an early international market. The S and X versions of the same software never joined that wave.

v14 Lite is Tesla’s way of squeezing the current v14 driving stack onto hardware that cannot run the full AI 4 model. The company describes the process as distillation: behaviors learned on the newer computer, including reinforcement learning and offline models, are compressed so the older chip and cameras can use them as a guide.

Early descriptions put the distilled network at roughly 15 percent of the original size. The result is still supervised Level 2 driving. Tesla has been clear that HW3 cannot support unsupervised Full Self-Driving or robotaxi operation because of memory and bandwidth limits.

The feature list is what made the wait so frustrating for S and X owners, as plenty of new features are to be shipped with it.

Official notes for the first Lite build, firmware 2026.20.5.1, added parking, unparking, and reversing; arrival options for a parking lot, street, driveway, or curbside; speed profiles that stay available at all times; and start-from-park engagement. Tesla also claimed better handling of merges, forks, pedestrians, traffic lights, and cut-ins, plus fewer false slowdowns and smoother lane centering.

A mid-July follow-on build, 2026.20.6.10, added more of the Hardware 4 interface, including a standalone Self-Driving app and the ability to start a trip from Park without a brake-pedal confirmation.

Elluswamy called that version the one “likely going to wide release.”

That wide release already reached most other HW3 cars in the United States and Canada. International timing still depends on regional validation and regulatory approval. For S and X owners, the remaining work appears to be model-specific validation rather than a new software stack.

There is no official Tesla changelog or build number for those two models yet, only Elluswamy’s offhand timeline. Some HW3 drivers who already have Lite report large gains over v12.6; others have described new indecision or phantom braking. The next test will be whether the same software lands cleanly on the older flagships that have waited the longest.

Continue Reading

Cybertruck

This tiny Tesla Cybertruck adjustment has big advantages

Published

on

Credit: Wes Morrill | X

Yesterday, we reported on Tesla Cybertruck getting some major adjustments from a manufacturing standpoint in an effort to make the all-electric pickup more cost-effective, more reliable, more serviceable, and more easily produced.

Tesla Cybertruck engineer reveals new changes in ‘constantly evolving’ pickup

One of those changes was the addition of a self-reinforcing polypropylene aero shield that sits underneath the truck. Previously, Tesla utilized aluminum for this, but the self-reinforcing polypropylene was more durable while also being cheaper and lighter.

Tesla has revealed another small change it made to the Cybertruck, and it has to do with the side repeater cameras.

Tesla does not wait for a new model year to improve its vehicles. On September 8, Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill posted side-by-side photos of an updated side repeater camera housing now rolling off the line at Gigafactory Texas.

The triangular camera pod mounted on the front fender looks almost identical at first glance. A closer look reveals a revised contour that uses the air already flowing around the truck to keep the lens clearer in rain and road spray.

The side repeater cameras sit in an exposed position on the Cybertruck’s angular stainless-steel body.

In wet weather, they readily collect water droplets that can degrade the image Autopilot and Full Self-Driving use for lane changes and blind-spot monitoring. Early production trucks sometimes left owners wiping lenses by hand or accepting temporary restrictions on driver-assistance features.

Tesla has added washers to cameras on certain other models and on Cybercab prototypes, but those active systems add cost, complexity, and extra potential leak points.

The new housing solves the problem with passive geometry. Subtle changes in the surround create localized airflow disturbances as the vehicle moves. Those eddies physically push water droplets away from the optical surface. Morrill called the result “pure vision improvement” achieved at “no cost penalty.” Once the production mold is updated, every subsequent part costs the same as the original.

The advantages compound quickly. Clearer cameras in rain improve the reliability of driver-assistance features precisely when they are needed most. The design consumes no extra energy and introduces no new failure modes.

New Cybertrucks built after the tooling changeover receive the updated part automatically. Some owners of trucks delivered as late as June 2026 have already confirmed they received the revised housing. Retrofit questions have appeared in replies, and the cameras appear electrically compatible, though Tesla has not announced an official service program.

A few millimeters of reshaped housing will not make headlines the way a new battery pack does, but these changes are incremental and increase the Cybertruck’s effectiveness as a vehicle over time.

This improvement illustrates how Tesla continues to refine the Cybertruck after volume production began. Better wet-weather vision, zero added cost, and no extra hardware add up to a meaningful gain in everyday usability and safety.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla is rolling out a new FSD version with a massive safety addition

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla is rolling out a new version of its Full Self-Driving suite to some owners that comes with the massive addition of a safety feature.

Tesla is rolling out Automatic Collision Evasion with the 2026.27.6 Software Update, which started rolling out to some vehicles last night. We received the update, along with Full Self-Driving v14.3.9, as well as v14.2 Lite, which has identical release notes as the previous version and seems to have some refinements and improvements in behavior and performance.

However, most of the attention has fallen on the Automatic Collision Evasion feature, which we covered in an article last week.

The function will activate Full Self-Driving to “try to keep your vehicle safe and then continue driving. It can engage in the following situations while you are driving manually:

  • Scenario 1: A frontal collision is imminent and braking alone may not avoid it.
  • Scenario 2: Your vehicle detects that you are not sufficiently attentive to the road (for example, reaching toward the back seat), or that Full Self-Driving (Supervised) may have been unintentionally disengaged.”

Essentially, FSD will take over when the vehicle determines you are not paying sufficient attention or are heading toward a potential collision. The addition of this feature is incredibly useful as distracted driving is a major issue in today’s world.

Along with the new safety feature is Tesla FSD v14.3.9, which has no additional release notes compared to the previous version, but in my first drives, my first impression is that operation is great, and parking is still sort of a pain point.

Additionally, Tesla v14.2. Lite has arrived. A great review of that is available here:


The addition of an Automatic Collision Evasion feature is similar to that of other collision avoidance systems that are used by companies like Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. These programs typically utilize radar and camera sensors to apply emergency brakes autonomously, though evasive steering in a manual driving mode is pioneered primarily by Tesla’s newest addition.

Continue Reading