TheBoringCompany
Latest
Elon Musk's LA tunnel turns Teslas into a 'rail-guided train'
Tonight The Boring Company hosted a launch event for the test tunnel it successfully built in LA running from SpaceX's property to "O'Leary Station" at a reported cost of about $10 million. In tweets, he showed off a Model X equipped with gear that guides the car between elevators at each end of the tunnel, where it then simply drives right back onto the road. The rig itself is really just a set of wheels, and TechCrunch reports that Musk said during a media briefing that they will be available as an aftermarket add-on for $200 to $300.
Boring Company's LA tunnel event set for December 18th
The bad news first: Elon Musk's Boring Company won't make its projected December 10th launch date for the LA Test Tunnel. The good news, however, is that Musk locked down a "product launch" to take place on December 18th complete with "modded but fully road legal autonomous transport cars & ground to tunnel car elevators." On Twitter, the company's official account said it needed more time to work on the snail habitat, referencing Elon's pet that outpaces the company's fastest digging machines. The event will occur just over a month after the company's digging machine broke through at O'Leary Station, and as Musk describes it, will be much more than just a tunnel opening. The whole idea is to show off lifts capable of operating in very small footprints, as well as the vehicles that will zoom through these tunnels at up to 150 MPH.
Boring Company breaks through to the end of its first test tunnel
We're about a month away from the planned opening of The Boring Company's Test Tunnel in LA, and it appears progress is moving along. Elon Musk tweeted this brief video of a digging machine breaking through, and although he wasn't specific about the location, it looks like they've reached O'Leary Station where the first test tunnel will end. The 'Godot' machine dug its first segment on SpaceX property in June, and things have been moving along busily ever since. We'll probably see people lining up for test rides after Black Friday. As the Boring Company explains, the point of this tunnel isn't just to dig it, but also to show off the small elevators that are key to its "loop" concept and are small enough to fit inside a house. Update: Just after this post was published, Musk tweeted again congratulating his company on completing the LA/Hawthorne tunnel.
Boring Company steers its latest machine with an Xbox controller
It might not be all that exciting to dig tunnels, but The Boring Company may have a way of livening things up a bit: give the operators a gamepad. The Elon Musk-owned outfit has posted a video showing a test that used an Xbox One controller to steer the company's latest boring machine. It's not as riveting as using Xbox 360 controllers to steer submarine periscopes, but this is certainly one of the largest pieces of gamepad-guided machinery.
Elon Musk's Thailand cave rescue would use a 'kid-size' submarine
Elon Musk is quickly solidifying his offer to help rescue a boys' soccer team trapped in a Thailand cave, and in just the way you would expect from a technology entrepreneur. He has revealed that the "primary path" for his attempt will involve a "kid-size submarine" that uses the liquid oxygen transfer tube of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as its hull. He added that it be "extremely robust" and would support many as four air tanks, with four handles that could be used as hitching points for ropes and cables.
Elon Musk is sending teams to assist with the Thailand cave rescue
Elon Musk has offered assistance in the rescue of the boys' soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand. Engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Company will travel to the country on Saturday to help with what is becoming an increasingly perilous rescue effort. As CNN reports, conditions are becoming life-threatening, with a former navy diver involved in the operation losing his life after a sudden drop in oxygen levels underground.
Elon Musk's Boring Company will build a high-speed link in Chicago
Elon Musk's tunneling and transportation startup, The Boring Company, has been selected to construct a high-speed link in Chicago. The route, called The Chicago Express Loop, will run between Terminals 1-3 of Chicago's O'Hare airport, and Block 37 in downtown Chicago. At least, that's the plan.
The Boring Company's 'Not a Flamethrower' reaches customers
Elon Musk hasn't had the easiest time fulfilling his companies' promises lately, but there's at least one product arriving (more or less) on time. Musk has confirmed that the Boring Company has supplied the first 1,000 out of 20,000 flamethrowers. You had to visit the company to pick it up, but it shows that the device isn't just a figment of your imagination.
Elon Musk pitches 150 MPH rides in Boring Company tunnels for $1
Tonight at The Boring Company Information Session not all of the talk centered on flamethrowers. Elon Musk and project leader Steve Davis described many details of their visions for an underground network that could alleviate traffic problems in big cities. Musk said "we're not suggesting this to the exclusion of other approaches," but did take a moment to call out flying taxi solutions (like Uber Elevate) right off the bat due to danger and noise.
Boring Company flamethrower shipments to start in two weeks
Tonight at an event to explain the details of his tunneling project, The Boring Company, Elon Musk was asked about the 20,000 flamethrowers it sold a few months ago. Musk said that they "encountered some delivery challenges" when it came to shipping these devices loaded with propane, but claimed they're getting around it by sending custom Boring Company delivery vans to customers, starting in two weeks.
The Boring Co. will sell giant ‘Lego-like’ building bricks
Apparently flamethrowers weren't enough. The next merchandise Elon Musk's Boring Company will sell are life-sized Lego bricks that you can use to build your own structures. The bricks are made of rock extracted during The Boring Company's drilling, and according to tweets from Musk, they interlock and have a "precise surface finish" so they could double as affordable housing materials. Initially, they'll be sold in kits to recreate versions of ancient Egyptian structures like pyramids and the Sphinx. It stands to reason that Musk could use these to build the Hyperloop infrastructure and stations, too.
Witnessing the Church of Elon Musk
SXSW plays host to big-name speakers all the time. Mother! and Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky was on stage yesterday, Apple's Eddy Cue is on a panel tomorrow and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins had a keynote this morning. But something felt different at the Moody Theater in downtown Austin. The crowd was unusually excited, expectant. A thousand or so SXSW attendees, a large number of them press, had congregated, after getting only 12 hours' notice, to hear Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk speak. The panel was scheduled for noon, but at 12:15 PM people were still shuffling in. Either Musk was running late or officials were stalling to let the audience take their seats. A small group in the venue's upper tier began clapping, as though calling for an encore after a concert, and the rhythmic applause swiftly pulsed around the theater, to no avail.
Elon Musk's Boring Company to prioritize pedestrians over cars
While we ponder the state of hyperloop tunnel transportation, Elon Musk just updated the plan for The Boring Company. The tech exec tweeted out a new concept video that focuses on a shuttle instead of cars. The shuttle (seen briefly in the first Boring Company video) is intended to carry people and bikes, and Musk said that Boring Company's loop network would have "1000's of small stations the size of a single parking space."
Hyperloop is edging closer to reality
Plenty has happened in the five years since Elon Musk first published his white paper on a system he called hyperloop. Since releasing that manifesto to the world, hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of dollars have been put to work, all in the service of bringing Musk's retro-futurist dream of a vacuum tube for people to life. And despite being less than a fever dream half a decade ago, the pace of innovation is notably increasing, with 2018 already including several big announcements regarding its future.
Elon Musk gets Hyperloop digging permit in Washington, DC
Last year, the internet needled Elon Musk for tweeting he had verbal approval to dig a Hyperloop tunnel in Washington, DC, because officials said they granted no such thing. Now, however, The Boring Company does have an honest-to-gosh written permit, albeit only for some preliminary site preparation and excavation, the Washington Post reports.
Elon Musk's Boring Company is selling a flamethrower
No, we're not kidding. After weeks of teases, Elon Musk has confirmed that The Boring Company is selling... a flamethrower. That's right, the same company digging traffic-skipping tunnels is now offering a weapon. Plunk down $500 for a pre-order (there's no word on when it will ship) and you can have the "world's safest" fire-breathing weapon. Just in case it isn't safe enough, though, there's also a $30 branded fire extinguisher.
Elon Musk's second LA tunnel faces criticism from local government
Elon Musk's Boring Company hasn't finished digging its first LA-area tunnel, but it's already talking about a second... and it's facing some resistance. The startup has pitched Culver City's council on a 6.5-mile "proof of process" tunnel between the town and LA that would gauge its ability to build across jurisdictions, which is rather vital when you're planning large-scale transportation systems. This wouldn't be as focused on individual cars, however -- rather, the emphasis would be on mass transit that it has previously hinted at in vague terms.
Elon Musk offers peek at traffic-dodging tunnel in Los Angeles
How much progress is Elon Musk's Boring Company making on its traffic-skipping tunnel in Los Angeles? A fair amount, it seems. Musk has shared the first photo of the underground test path, and it's evident that the team has been busy. The image itself isn't much to look at -- surprise, it's a tunnel -- but it does show a substantially polished design, including cabling, paneled surfaces and tracks. He adds that the tunnel is currently 500 feet long, and will take about a year to extend along the stretch of Interstate 405 running "from LAX to the 101."
Even if Hyperloop fails, public transport will win
One hundred and fifty teams from around the world entered the third SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. Of those, 25 made it to the company's weeklong event in Hawthorne, California. And like the prior years' events under the Southern California sun, after days of testing and dry runs, only a select few were chosen to do a proper vacuum-sealed run down the 1.25 kilometer track.
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop 'approval' seems to be from the White House
Earlier today, we reported that Elon Musk and The Boring Company had reportedly been given verbal government approval to build a Hyperloop that would connect New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC, according to a tweet posted by Musk.
