Elon Musk’s Boring Company is tunneling underneath Nashville and residents aren’t happy—particularly that it’s Musk who is doing it.
A new survey by Vanderbilt University found that 35% of Nashville residents generally opposed the plan to use Tesla vehicles, driven by trained drivers, to transport people between downtown Nashville and Nashville International Airport via the Boring Company’s underground Music City Loop.
Yet, when researchers mentioned Musk’s name explicitly, the percentage of residents opposed to the project jumped to 51%—a slight majority.
“The public’s support for Elon Musk’s tunnel project is heavily influenced by partisanship,” the researchers found, underscoring how deeply Musk’s political activity now shapes public perception of even his private business ventures.
The Boring Company did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The disparity between the two findings shows just how polarizing a figure Musk is even after he stepped away from direct involvement with the Trump administration. He previously spent nearly $300 million to elect President Donald Trump and then served as the leader of his government cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he departed last May.
While DOGE was dissolved as a government entity late last year, it was responsible for firing an estimated 300,000 federal workers and bringing the federal workforce to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to the Cato Institute. DOGE also cut funding for several agencies and essentially dismantled USAID, which provided foreign aid, by cutting 80% of its programs and absorbing the remaining operations within the State Department.
More expansion planned
Musk’s Boring Company in July announced plans to build 20 miles of tunnels underneath existing highways to transport people between Nashville International Airport and downtown’s lower Broadway in about 10 minutes. The loop will remove thousands of vehicles from surface roads daily and is entirely privately funded, according to a press release. The project is estimated to cost the company between $200 million and $300 million.
The Boring Company unveiled its first underground loop project, the Las Vegas Loop, in 2021. It consists of 11 stations that include the Las Vegas Convention Center and Resorts World. While the company ultimately plans to build a 104-station tunnel network beneath Las Vegas, the project has also been plagued by safety issues, accidents, and scandals. Two Nevada regulators earlier this month wrote a letter to Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo asking for a “comprehensive plan” to address concerns with the tunneling project, Fortune reported.
As for Nashville, despite the apparent opposition by residents and a vote by Nashville’s city council earlier this month to formally oppose the project, the Music City Loop is getting closer to starting construction after the Convention Center Authority granted the Boring Company access to an easement that would let it tunnel beneath the privately owned Music City Center, bringing it closer to its goal of connecting downtown Nashville and the airport.
Still, the findings from the Vanderbilt survey could signal trouble ahead as the company expands — it announced this week it is studying potential projects in New Orleans, Baltimore, Maryland, and Dallas, Texas.
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