Boring Company tunnel stretches beneath Hawthorne, Calif. (Boring Company Photo / October 2017)
A newly reported investment round has brought in $112.5 million for the Boring Company, the venture that billionaire techie Elon Musk created last year to build transit tunnels.
Musk himself put in more than 90 percent of the money, according the Boring Company. The company said the rest came from early employees, with no involvement by venture capitalists or outside investors.
Billionaire techie Elon Musk says he had this selfie taken while he was “deep in the hole with my boring machine.” (Elon Musk via Instagram)
What do you do for an encore after you’ve sold 20,000 flamethrowers? If you’re billionaire Elon Musk, you sell rocks.
But not just any rocks. These are rocks carved out by Musk’s tunneling venture, the Boring Company, and shaped for construction purposes. “Two people could build the outer walls of a small house in a day or so,” Musk said.
Musk launched his latest merchandising campaign tonight in a series of tweets — and as usual, answered questions from his avid fans.
An animation shows an electric-powered pod traveling through a transit tunnel at 124 mph. (Elon Musk via Twitter)
Tesla cars riding electric-powered tracks? Forget about it, at least for now. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and founder of The Boring Company, says pedestrians and cyclists will be the first users of his underground transit tunnels and Hyperloop tubes.
In a series of tweets on March 9, Musk said “all tunnels and Hyperloop will prioritize pedestrians and cyclists over cars.”
“Will still transport cars, but only after personalized mass transit needs are met,” he explained. “It’s a matter of courtesy and fairness. If someone can’t afford a car, they should go first.”
Which means Tesla might well get into the mini-bus business, adding a new electric-powered vehicle to its line of sedans, sports cars and trucks.
Elon Musk and Dara Khosrowshahi differ over flying cars vs. tunnels. (Photos via Twitter)
Pop up some more popcorn: Billionaire Elon Musk has gotten himself into another CEO vs. CEO challenge, this time with Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi over air taxis.
Khosrowshahi — who left Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia last year to become Uber’s CEO — is sold on the idea. Musk isn’t. Instead, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is partial to tunnels that let cars or electric-powered pods zip beneath surface roads. Musk’s tunneling venture, The Boring Company, is involved in experimental projects in the L.A. area as well as Chicago and Baltimore-Washington, D.C.
Elon Musk’s vision calls for building networks of underground tunnels to get around surface street congestion. (Boring Company Illustration)
The Boring Company, created by billionaire Elon Musk to revolutionize the market for tunnels and flamethrowers, is one of four ventures to put in bids to build a high-speed transit system between downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel listed the respondents on Feb. 7 in a news release, and said the next step will be to determine which of the ventures are truly qualified to build, finance, operate and maintain the O’Hare Express.
The system is required to run shuttles every 15 minutes or less, with a downtown-to-airport transit time of no more than 20 minutes, for a fare that’s less than the cost of current taxi and rideshare services.
The Chicago Infrastructure Trust leaves it to the bidders to come up with the best way to make that happen. It could be by sending electric-powered pods through underground tunnels, which is the likeliest course for The Boring Company. But the system also could make use of above-ground tracks.
We still thought he was kidding when it turned out there was a stealthy, password-protected page on the Boring Company website, offering flamethrowers for $600.
Elon Musk’s original Hyperloop concept called for passengers to travel through pneumatic tubes in pods. (Tesla / SpaceX Illustration)
A loop to the Loop? It could happen: Billionaire Elon Musk says he’s willing to build an express transit system that links downtown Chicago with O’Hare International Airport.
Musk’s expression of interest came in response to Chicago’s “request for qualifications” relating to the system — which would be designed to cut travel times to 20 minutes or less, for a fare that costs less than a taxi or ride-hailing service. The Chicago Tribune said the fare could be in the range of $25 or more.
In a tweet, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the express route would “give Chicagoans and visitors to our great city more options, faster travel time, and build on Chicago’s competitive advantage as a global hub of tourism, transportation and trade.”
No public funding would be provided. Instead, the concessionaire would have to finance the project and earn the money back from fares, advertising revenue and other sources.
The tunnel boring machine nicknamed “Godot” sits in a below-ground chamber. Elon Musk reportedly acquired the pre-owned machine from L.A. Metro. (Elon Musk via Instagram)
One of billionaire Elon Musk’s lesser-known ventures is taking the spotlight with word that The Boring Company is looking into digging a rapid-transit tunnel between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
In June, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla estimated that he spent only about 2 percent of his working time on The Boring Company, which focuses on lowering the cost of tunneling to facilitate high-speed underground transit. He must have saved up a lot of that time for this week.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s grand scheme for underground car tunnels will require elevators to get the cars in those tunnels – and tonight he shared a video of a prototype elevator being tested next to SpaceX’s California HQ:
