Lifestyle
HyperSciences’ drilling tech can expedite Elon Musk’s tunneling revolution
During The Boring Company’s information session earlier this year, Elon Musk remarked that the company’s next-generation Tunnel Boring Machine, which is electric-powered and completely designed in-house, would likely be 10-15x faster than conventional TBMs. With such a machine in its repertoire, The Boring Co. is poised to complete high-profile projects like the Chicago-O’Hare transport system in record time.
While The Boring Company is poised to revolutionize the tunneling industry, Elon Musk’s tunneling startup has the potential to push the envelope even further if it explores other disruptive technologies. Take, for example, the tunneling solutions being developed by startups like HyperSciences.
HyperSciences is a company that uses rocket science to disrupt several sectors, including tunneling and renewable energy. The company was founded by actual rocket scientist Mark Russell, whose tenure in the field involves work with companies like Boeing and Kistler Aerospace. Russell also worked for Jeff Bezos’ private space firm, Blue Origin, where he led the design and development of the company’s crew capsule, as well as its takeoff and landing vehicle. Even before starting HyperSciences, the rocket scientist already had a passion for tunnels and digging, thanks in part to his family’s long history in the mining industry.
At the heart of the startup is a rather simple and straightforward device called the HyperCore — a low-cost, multi-purpose projectile that can accelerate to velocities over Mach 5. The HyperCore is fired into the earth through an AI-guided system, and due to the projectile’s speed, firing it results in a meteor-like impact that immediately breaks and pulverizes hard rock. With rocks crushed, boring machines can progress much faster, expediting the timelines of tunneling projects.
- Hypersciences drilling technology
- HyperSciences’ tunnel boring machine.
HyperSciences’ own boring machine, dubbed as the Hyper Tunnel Boring and Mining System (HTBM), is far quicker than traditional TBMs. Whereas conventional TBMs are capable of digging around 300 feet per week, HyperSciences estimates that its HTBM system could dig a mile-long tunnel in seven days. The HTBM would accomplish this by firing the HyperCore, sending LIDAR down the hole, determining the best next spot to fire, and firing another shot. This process allows the tunneling machine to operate smoothly almost without obstruction.
What is particularly notable about the HyperCore is that it is compatible with existing equipment such as excavators and other low profile tracked machines. This means that even tunneling firms such as The Boring Company could utilize the ultra-high-speed projectile to expedite its digging operations. This would, of course, require a notable amount of work from HyperSciences and the companies it would partner with, but the benefits of faster turnaround times for tunneling projects would likely be well worth it.
HyperSciences continues to raise funds to help continue the development of its technology. The company is crowdsourcing it’s latest investment round, allowing everyday investors to get on board towards HyperSciences’ journey as a plausible disruptor of multiple industries. With such a clever and straightforward application of its technology, there is little doubt that the potential of HyperSciences is massive.
The tunneling industry has not really evolved much over the past decades. Prior to the arrival of The Boring Company, tunneling is perceived as an expensive, slow, and arduous endeavor. With the advent of the Boring Company, tunneling has started a transition towards a new era of faster, smaller, and more strategic tunnels. With HyperCore’s technology, tunneling projects would likely be able to shake off their reputation of being a tedious and expensive affair.
Read more about HyperSciences’ work and concepts here.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s answer to Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey got way more specific
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026

