Imagine stepping on to a train in London and arriving in New York just 54 minutes later. Although that might sound like something straight from the pages of science fiction, this is exactly what a proposed Transatlantic Tunnel claims it could achieve. This Elon Musk-backed concept could allow travellers to complete the 3,400-mile (5,470 km) journey in less time than many people's inner-city commute. But that convenience comes at a serious cost, with the estimated price tag reaching 19trillion ( 15trillion) - over five times more than the UK's total gross domestic product. Musk recently ignited renewed interest in the idea by claiming that his tunnel-digging company, The Boring Company, could complete it for '1000-times less money'.

This story is part of Lit City, our comprehensive guide to the literary geography of Los Angeles. Bookstores are wide open again -- the booksellers busy selling, the customers browsing and the house cats doing their thing. In March, staff writers Dorany Pineda and Christi Carras visited 10 shops around town with a photographer in tow -- from a romance bookshop in Culver City and a Black-owned store at the Westfield mall to the Central Library and establishments serving cookbook obsessives, design geeks and others. In the gallery below, customers, employees and owners talk about their favorite shops, books and reading nooks and share what they love about bookish Los Angeles. "Not all romance even has sex, but most of the books that we sell do, and we're trying to promote a very positive environment where it's something that's talked about openly and without judgment, and where there's a real variety represented -- obviously with gender and sexuality," said Leah Koch, co-owner of the Ripped Bodice.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has won approval to build a 29-mile tunnel system underneath the Las Vegas strip. It will allow up to 57,000 passengers to hitch rides in Teslas to and from casinos every hour, as well as to the city's airport and the Raiders football stadium. The SpaceX founder's Boring Company already operates a smaller version of the'Vegas Loop' system underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, which opened earlier this year to lackluster reviews. Instead of futuristic cars zipping people from place to place at high speeds, it features regular Tesla vehicles being driven by humans trundling through a tunnel at just 35mph. However, a huge city-wide expansion of the tunnels, which was proposed by The Boring Company in December last year, has now been approved by Vegas officials.

Elon Musk envisions tunnels deep in the ground to solve'soul-destroying traffic' – but now he needs your help. The billionaire is hosting a competition through The Boring Company that challenges the public to dig a 98-foot deep tunnel with a circular opening of 19.7 inches. According to The Boring Company's site, the main objective of the contest is to dig faster than a snail, which is 14 times faster than its own machine. Three winners are set to be chosen in spring 2021 for fastest to complete the tunnel, along with one that has a driving surface that a Tesla remote controlled car can drive through. Elon Musk envisions tunnels deep in the ground to solve'soul-destroying traffic' – but now he needs your help.

This Jan. 22, 2018, file still frame from video provided by KCBS-TV shows a Tesla Model S electric car that has crashed into a fire engine on Interstate 405 in Culver City, Calif. DETROIT – A government report says the driver of a Tesla that slammed into a firetruck near Los Angeles last year was using the car's Autopilot system when a vehicle in front of him suddenly changed lanes and he didn't have time to react. The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday the driver never saw the parked firetruck and didn't brake. The report raises further questions about the effectiveness of Tesla's system, which was in operation before several other crashes including two fatalities in Florida and one in Silicon Valley. Tesla warns drivers that the system is not fully autonomous and drivers must be ready to intervene.

Elon Musk has unveiled his underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday, allowing reporters and invited guests to take some of the first rides in the revolutionary albeit bumpy subterranean tube. Guests boarded Musk's Tesla Model S and rode about one mile along Los Angeles-area surface streets to what is known as O'Leary Station in his just-completed Hawthorne Test Tunnel. The demo rides, though considerably slower than the fully executed plan is expected to allow, ran on Tuesday at 40 mph. Musk said the future system will make vehicles'capable of traveling safely at over 150mph. At that speed, it will feel like teleporting within a city.'

Elon Musk is set to unveil the first underground tunnel he hopes will revolutionise commuting. Musk also plans to show off the autonomous cars that will carry people through the test tunnel, which runs about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) under the streets of Hawthorne, California, Musk's SpaceX headquarters. He's also planning to unveil elevators he says will bring users' own cars from street level to the tunnel. On Saturday, Musk also shared a teaser for the launch event with a poster of one of the Boring Company's tunnels and a light at the end. The test tunnel runs about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) under the streets of Hawthorne, California, Musk's SpaceX headquarters.

The mix of software and services and higher prices are key to Apple's effort to offset slowing iPhone unit sales. Though the company reported record annual revenue on Nov. 1 due to higher iPhone prices, it also said it would stop reporting the number of iPhones sold--a metric that has been stagnant lately--a decision that many analysts interpreted as signaling the iPhone's growth years are in the past. Apple's stock price has declined by nearly a quarter since then. While the push beyond its Silicon Valley home could aid those efforts, it also will test a highly centralized company that has thrived due to a concentrated workforce located near its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, analysts said. "This idea of'Designed in Cupertino' has really been the ethos of Apple, and now you're going to have AI and services designed outside Cupertino," said Gene Munster, managing partner at investment and research firm Loup Ventures.

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk is already dabbling in the electric car, solar energy, aerospace, tunneling and neuroscience industries. As if those aren't keeping him busy enough, Musk may now have his sights on entering the media industry. The SpaceX boss has poached several writers and editors from satirical news publication The Onion to work on a secret project he's funding, according to The Daily Beast. Possibly giving credence to the report, Musk sent out a pair of cryptic tweets early Wednesday, beginning with one that simply said'Thud!' Rumors are circling that SpaceX boss Elon Musk is planning to launch his own'intergalactic media empire.' The Daily Beast reported that he's poached writers and editors from the Onion for a secret satirical news project.

When Los Angeles-based actress and interior designer Ashley Martin Scott responded to a casting call for "mom and baby" back in April 2015, details were scant. "I pretty much came into it blindly, not knowing what to expect, aside from'a mom and a baby,'" Scott said. "And that it was something about leaving a message for your child in the future and I thought, 'That sounds fun.'" There is tech for tech's sake, and then there's tech that alters or enhances the human experience. In the second season of the Verge video series Next Level, senior editor Lauren Goode takes you behind the scenes to show you the technology that's being worked on at some of the world's most innovative companies and research institutions.