Few things in 2021 have been able to unite the internet in condemnation as much as The Boring Company’s new project in Las Vegas. (Apart from the European Super League, and that saw people marching in the streets that they chalked it off as a bad idea 48 hours later.) Digging mile-long tunnels for cars to shuttle people back and forth seems like an expensive, wasteful project when there are so many simpler options. Just because it looks silly, however, doesn’t mean it is silly in context. (Although it is. It clearly is.)

Rather than mock all of the obviously mockable things about it, let’s take a quick trip to understand why officials voted 13-1 to bankroll this project. And let’s look at the obvious benefits that pushing traffic underground can have on the built environment. Not to mention the specific burdens that the Las Vegas Convention Center is trying to deal with in a post-COVID world. Only when we’ve done all of that, can we feel confident in saying that it’s silly, and it is.