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Elon Musk’s Boring Co. takes aim at fighting LA traffic

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The Boring Company’s test tunnel that adjoins SpaceX and Tesla’s Design Center in Hawthorne, CA is really starting to take shape. Serial tech entrepreneur Elon Musk posted an image on Saturday that shows a long run of track, pipes and reinforcement inside a tunnel. In addition to providing a first look at a 500 feet stretch of The Boring Company’s test tunnel, Musk also revealed plans for the company’s first route that’s expected to begin from LAX airport and run parallel to major Los Angeles corridor, Interstate 405, and north to U.S. Route 101.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Musk would choose this section as the company’s first project. After all, his dealing with constant soul-crushing traffic along a path of travel that’s a consistent winner of “America’s worst freeways” was the genesis for The Boring Company.

“First route will go roughly parallel to the 405 from LAX to 101, with on/offramps every mile or so. It will work like a fast freeway, where electric skates carrying vehicles and people on pods on the main artery travel at up to 150mph, and the skates switch to side tunnels to exit and enter.” says Musk.

Vehicles entering and exiting the tunnels would be helped by a car elevator, something Musk first demonstrated in July after posting a video of a Tesla Model S being lowered into the tunnel entrance. The use of side tunnels for exit and entry will allow the main tunnel to keep a consistent, high speed flow of traffic and make travel more efficient. It’s a key differentiator from traditional subway systems that often experience frequent stop-and-go travel. “There is a big difference compared to subways that stop at every stop, whether you’re getting off or not.” said Musk after sharing an image of the test tunnel.

In addition to the tunnel project taking place in Los Angeles, The Boring Company has recently been given permission by Maryland officials to dig a 10.1-mile tunnel beneath state-owned land that looks to connect Baltimore with Washington, DC. “Incredibly excited to announce our administration’s support for The Boring Company to bring rapid electric transportation technology to Maryland, connecting Baltimore City and Washington D.C.” said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan on October 19 in a Facebook post.

The Boring Company tunneling machine spotted in front of SpaceX in April 2017

As The Boring Company continues to build its 2-mile test tunnel that’s located a stone’s throw away from LAX, it’s expected that the team will also continue to learn techniques that will allow them to maximize efficiencies with tunnel digging and moving earth. Musk revealed at TED 2017, in a sit-down with head curator Chris Anderson, that The Boring Company plans to cut tunnel diameter by 50% for passenger vehicles and reduce the cross sectional area of tunnels by a factor of four. Building a smaller tunnel that’s just large enough for a vehicle will cut 75% of the time associated with digging and introduce a significant cost reduction.

Unlike traditional tunnel boring machines that dig slowly and incrementally, as it stops so that a team can build tunnel reinforcements, Musk’s GoDot digger looks to install tunnel walls continuously. Being able to build reinforcements into a tunnel while it’s being dug eliminates the need to pause operations, thus speeding up the entire process.

Though Musk’s vision to build a high speed underground transportation system in major cities might face opposition from local regulators at first, visibility of progress being made by The Boring Company in Los Angeles and beyond, and ultimately the cost savings involved with such projects will lead to the eureka moment for government officials worldwide.

Why wait nine years on a $1.5 billion “beach shuttle” when you can do it in less than half the time and at a fraction of the cost? Eureka.

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Tesla rolling out Robotaxi pilot in SF Bay Area this weekend: report

Similar to the Austin pilot, the Robotaxi rides will reportedly be a paid service.

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla is reportedly preparing to launch a Robotaxi pilot program in the Bay Area this weekend, with invites to a select number of customers reportedly being sent out as early as this Friday.

The update was shared in a report from Insider, which cited an internal memo from the electric vehicle maker.

New Robotaxi service launch

According to Insider, the Robotaxi service in the Bay Area is set to launch as soon as Friday. Thus, some Tesla owners in the area should receive invites to use the driverless ride-hailing service. Similar to the Austin pilot, the Robotaxi rides will reportedly be a paid service.

The publication noted that the Robotaxi service’s geofence in its Bay Area launch will be quite large, as it will include Marin, much of the East Bay, San Francisco, and San Jose. This is not surprising as California has long been saturated with Teslas, and it is home to several of the electric vehicle maker’s key facilities.

Unlike the Austin pilot, the Tesla Robotaxi service’s pilot in the Bay Area will use safety drivers seated in the driver’s seat. These drivers will be able to manually take over using the steering wheel and brakes as needed. As per a spokesperson from the California DMV, the agency recently met with Tesla but the company is yet to submit a formal application to operate fully driverless cars. 

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Tesla Robotaxi expansion

Interestingly enough, Tesla did tease the release of its Robotaxi service to the Bay Area in its second quarter earnings call. While discussing the service, Tesla VP of Autopilot/AI Software Ashok Elluswamy mentioned that the company will initially be rolling out Robotaxis with safety drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area. He did, however, also highlight that the electric vehicle maker is working hard to get government permission to release the service for consumers.

“The next thing to expand would be in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are working with the government to get approval here and, in the meanwhile, launch the service without the person in the driver seat just to expedite and while we wait for regulatory approval,” he stated.

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Tesla is ready with a perfect counter to the end of US EV tax credits

Tesla executives have mentioned that these more affordable models would resemble the company’s current lineup.

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Credit: Tesla Asia/X

The United States’ electric vehicle tax credit is coming to an end at the end of the third quarter. Tesla, the country’s leading electric vehicle maker, is ready to meet this challenge with a rather simple but clever counter. 

Tesla executives outlined this strategy in the recently held Q2 2025 earnings call.

End of the US EV tax credit

While Elon Musk has always maintained that he prefers a market with no EV tax credit, he also emphasized that he supports the rollback of any incentives given to the oil and gas industry. The Trump administration has not done this so far, instead focusing on the expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit at the end of the third quarter.

Tesla has been going all-in on encouraging customers to purchase their vehicles in Q3 to take advantage of lower prices. The company has also implemented a series of incentives across all its offerings, from the Cybertruck to the Model 3. This, however, is not all, as the company seems to be preparing a longer-term solution to the expiration of the EV tax credit.

Affordable variants

During the Q2 2025 earnings call, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moray stated that Tesla really did start the production of more affordable models in June. Quality builds of these vehicles are being ramped this quarter, with the goal of optimizing production over the remaining months of the year. If Tesla is successful, these models will be available for everyone in Q4. 

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“We started production in June, and we’re ramping quality builds and things around the quarter. And given that we started in North America and our goal is to maximize production with a higher rate. So starting Q3, we’re going to keep pushing hard on our current models to avoid complexity… We’ll be ready with new, more affordable models available for everyone in Q4.,” Moravy stated. 

These comments suggest that Tesla should be able to offer vehicles that are competitively priced even after the EV tax credit has been phased out. Interestingly enough, previous comments from Tesla executives have mentioned that these more affordable models would resemble the company’s current lineup. This suggests that the more affordable models may indeed be variations of the Model Y and Model 3, but offered at a lower price.

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Elon Musk reveals Tesla’s next Robotaxi expansion in more ways than one

Tesla Robotaxi is growing in more ways than one. Tesla wants to expand and hopes to reach half the U.S. population by the end of the year.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the company’s plans for its next expansion of the Robotaxi in terms of both the geofence in Austin and the platform overall, as it looks to move to new areas outside of Texas.

Tesla launched the Robotaxi platform last month on June 22, and has since expanded both the pool of users and the area that the driverless Model Y vehicles can travel within.

The first expansion of the geofence caught the attention of nearly everyone and became a huge headline as Tesla picked a very interesting shape for the new geofence, resembling male reproductive parts.

The next expansion will likely absolve this shape. Musk revealed last night that the new geofence will be “well in excess of what competitors are doing,” and it could happen “hopefully in a week or two.”

Musk’s full quote regarding the expansion of the geofence and the timing was:

“As some may have noted, we have already expanded our service area in Austin. It’s bigger and longer, and it’s going to get even bigger and longer. We are expecting to greatly increase the service area to well in excess of what competitors are doing, hopefully in a week or two.”

The expansion will not stop there, either. As Tesla has operated the Robotaxi platform in Austin for the past month, it has been working with regulators in other areas, like California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, to get the driverless ride-hailing system activated in more U.S. states.

Tesla confirmed that they are in talks with each of these states regarding the potential expansion of Robotaxi.

Musk added:

“As we get the approvals and prove out safety, we will be launching the autonomous ride-hailing across most of the country. I think we will probably have autonomous ride-hailing in probably half the population of the US by the end of the year.”

We know that Tesla and Musk have been prone to aggressive and sometimes outlandish timelines regarding self-driving technology specifically. Regulatory approvals could happen by the end of the year in several areas, and working on these large metros is the best way to reach half of the U.S. population.

Tesla said its expansion of the geofence in Austin is conservative and controlled due to its obsession with safety, even admitting at one point during the Earnings Call that they are being “paranoid.” Expanding the geofence is necessary, but Tesla realizes any significant mistake by Robotaxi could take it back to square one.

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