Mayor of Los Angeles still supports Elon Musk's projects despite eyebrow lift



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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed his support on Friday for Elon Musk and said he hoped the city would continue to carry out several large-scale projects with the technology mogul companies, despite his behavior. eyebrow.

The City of Los Angeles is evaluating several projects supported by Musk, including an underground tunnels system aimed at reducing car traffic at the surface level through its Boring company. Another Musk company, SpaceX, was also authorized by the city in May to develop an 18-acre site at the Port of Los Angeles to build a rocket for manned flights to Mars.

Musk has been involved in a series of incidents in recent months, which plunged the stock of his company Tesla and some have questioned his mental stability.

"A good guy sometimes smokes pot in interviews," joked Garcetti when he was interviewed by City News Service about Musk at a press conference, referring to a bodybuilding incident with comedian Joe Rogan.

Tesla shares fell 9% the next day and fell 6%.

When asked if he feared that Musk's recent behavior would jeopardize the city's plans as he continues with his businesses, Garcetti expressed his support for Musk.

"I've been very impressed by what Elon has produced.It's always someone who pushes the border, literally in space, in the basement and on the ground – all of them three, as well as the virtual, "said Garcetti.

"He was someone who attracts an incredible talent, I think everyone is so obsessed with his personality," added Garcetti. "I do not run the city on my own and he does not run his own businesses, the people who work around him, the employees of the assignment company are incredible engineers. I do not know, but I want LA to be the place where people test it. "

A British diver who helped rescue a dozen boys from a flooded cave in Thailad recently sued Musk for defamation and slander, alleging that Tesla's chief executive had defamed him by falsely calling him a pedophile on Twitter.

Musk had other PR problems this summer. Tesla has seen massive layoffs, the loss of several leaders and a slowdown in production. In response to a complaint from a customer regarding the slow delivery of electric cars, Musk tweeted that "we went from the hell of production to the hell of delivery logistics" but the company was progressing rapidly.

Musk is also the subject of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission after announcing on Twitter in August that it was considering taking Tesla privately for $ 420 per share and that it had the funding needed to make it "secure". He then retired from the plan.

Musk also granted an interview to The New York Times last month where he stated that he slept very little and that he depended on Ambien's sleep medication. The Times also reported that he had been crying during an interview during the discussion about the personal track record of his businesses, even though Musk later denied having cried and said his voice was no longer in danger. had cracked that one time.

A Boring Co. project to build a zero-emission, high-speed underground public transport system from the Hollywood area to the Dodger Stadium was the subject of a public hearing in August.

The approximately 3.6-mile Dugout Loop Tunnel will connect the Dodger Stadium to the Boring Co., near Red Line Vermont / Sunset, Vermont / Santa Monica or Vermont / Beverly subway stations. .

The tunnel would be fully funded by the private sector and would not require any tax, the company said.

Passengers will embark on "autonomous electric skates" powered by several electric motors carrying eight to 16 people. They will travel 125-50 miles at the time for a trip that will take less than four minutes and cost about $ 1, depending on the company.

The tunnel will be entirely under the public right-of-way or the land owned or leased by The Boring Co.

The Dugout loop is similar to a series of tunnels at the city scale. Musk also proposed to build with private funds. A Los Angeles City Council Committee approved excavation permits in April. Musk is looking for a 2.7-mile proof-of-concept tunnel on the Westside.

However, the Public Works and Gang Reduction Committee noted that Metro will need to review the project, in part to ensure that it does not contradict the agency's own plans to build a transportation system along the length of the project. Sepulveda corridor. The committee also added an amendment to clarify that the tunnel was not a public transit system and only a proof of concept – a necessary distinction for the committee to also find that the project is exempt from often stringent requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act

Hawthorne-based SpaceX is already renting 8.1 acres in San Pedro's outer harbor, where thrusters and other spacecraft returning from orbital missions can be moored.

But a new facility approved by the city in May on the former Southwest Marine shipyard will be used to build the company's Big Falcon rocket for possible Mars missions and to transport passengers around the world in record time. Musk predicts the rocket will be ready for launch on Mars by 2022.

SpaceX wants to use the port to be able to ship parts of the rocket by sea to potential launch sites in other parts of the country because the ships would be too big to be transported by land.

According to a project description in a California Environmental Quality Act study, "the ships, once completed, would be too big to be transported by road and should therefore be transported by barge.

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