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Elon Musk’s Boring Co. LA tunnel faces lawsuit from local neighborhood groups

[Credit: The Boring Company]

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The Boring Company’s 2.7-mile proof-of-concept tunnel under Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA is facing stiff opposition from two local neighborhood groups, after the organizations filed a joint lawsuit against the tunneling startup’s exemption from environmental review.

The lawsuit was filed by two Westside organizations — the Brentwood Residents Coalition and the Sunset Coalition. Filed last month, the neighborhood groups’ suit alleges that the local government violated state law when it decided to exempt the Boring Company’s proof-of-concept tunnel from review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The neighborhood groups are also challenging the city’s decision last March that permitted The Boring Co. to haul dirt from its tunneling project.

At the core of the lawsuit is the allegation that the Boring Company’s proof-of-concept project is actually part of a larger system of tunnels that would eventually be used for public transportation. According to the neighborhood groups, state law prohibits government agencies such as the City Council Public Works Committee to grant “piecemeal” approval to just one component of a larger project. The exemption also expedites the tunneling startup’s initiatives, considering that environmental reviews could add months or even years to a project’s timeline.

The Boring Company’s conceptual map for its planned Los Angeles tunnel system. [Credit: The Boring Company]

“The state’s environmental law cannot be evaded by chopping large projects into smaller pieces that taken individually appear to have no significant environmental impacts,” part of the lawsuit stated, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole echoed the opposition of the neighborhood groups to the Boring Company’s tunneling project. In a statement to the Times, Cole, who previously served as deputy mayor to Garcetti, claimed that the startup’s tunnel systems would create a class divide among commuters.

“We’ll have people stuck in traffic on the surface, and this miracle fast lane underground for the people who can afford it. It’ll be toll lanes on steroids,” Cole said.

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In its website’s FAQ, the Boring Company states that its LA proof-of-concept tunnel will be used for testing purposes. The startup also noted that Phase 1, which corresponds to the Sepulveda Blvd – Culver City tunnel, will not be used for public transportation, at least until the project is considered successful by the county, the city government, and by the company itself.

“The tunnel would be used for construction logistics verification, system testing, safety testing, operating procedure verification, and line-switching demonstrations. Phase 1 would not be utilized for public transportation until the proof-of-process tunnel is deemed successful by County government, City government, and TBC.”

The Boring Company has issued an open invitation for a town hall meeting for individuals and parties interested in its LA tunneling projects. As stated in an online flyer for the event, the meeting will be held this Thursday, May 17, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. local time at the Leo Baeck Temple, 1300 N Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.

Just recently, Elon Musk shared a short video clip of the Boring Company’s Hawthorne tunnel, stating that the project is almost complete. Musk also noted that once the tunnel is fully operational, the startup would be offering free rides to the public. Musk reiterated the Boring Company’s commitment to public transportation as well, stating that the system will always give priority to pedestrians and cyclists for “less than the cost of a bus ticket.”

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Elon Musk takes aim at Bill Gates’ Microsoft with new AI venture “Macrohard”

It is quite an appropriate name for a company that’s designed to rival Microsoft.

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Credit: xAI/X

Elon Musk has set his sights on Microsoft with a new company called “Macrohard,” a software venture tied to his AI startup, xAI. 

Musk described the project as a “purely AI software company” that’s designed to generate hundreds of specialized coding and generative AI agents that could one day simulate products from companies like Microsoft entirely through artificial intelligence.

Macrohard‘s Purpose

Musk announced Macrohard on Friday, though xAI had already registered the trademark with the US Patent Office a few weeks ago, as noted in a PC Mag report. Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that Musk has mentioned such an initiative.

Just last month, he stated that xAI was “creating a multi-agent AI software company, where Grok spawns hundreds of specialized coding and image/video generation/understanding agents all working together and then emulates humans interacting with the software in virtual machines until the result is excellent.”

At the time, Musk stated that “This is a macro challenge and a hard problem with stiff competition,” hinting at the venture’s “Macrohard” moniker. A few years ago, Musk also posted “Macrohard >> Microsoft” on X. 

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Powered by xAI and Colossus

Macrohard appears to be closely linked to xAI’s Colossus 2 supercomputer project in Memphis. Musk has confirmed plans to acquire millions of Nvidia GPUs, joining rivals such as OpenAI and Meta in a high-stakes race for AI computing power. Colossus is already one of the most powerful supercomputer clusters in the world, and it is still being expanded.

xAI is only a couple of years old, having been founded in March 2023. During its Engineering Open House event in San Francisco, Elon Musk highlighted that the company’s speed will be its primary competitive edge. “No SR-71 Blackbird was ever shot down and it only had one strategy: to accelerate,” Musk said.

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Elon Musk confirms he’s still in wartime CEO mode

He is still locked in.

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Wcamp9, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk tends to use social media platform X as his personal platform to express himself, so much so that critics tend to allege that the CEO is no longer serious about his numerous companies. 

As per Musk, he is still very much in wartime CEO mode, despite all the jokes and fun posts about Ani on X. 

Elon Musk leads several prolific companies, much more than the average CEO. And while Tesla is the only publicly traded entity that he currently leads, Musk is so visible that everyone across the internet pretty much has a strong opinion of him one way or another. For his longtime supporters and followers, however, what truly matters is if Musk is locked in.

Considering that Elon Musk’s feed on X has recently been filled with AI imagery, a good portion of which involve AI-rendered women, some X users have expressed concerns that the CEO may be losing focus once more. Musk responded to one such user by highlighting his very busy schedule and his numerous active projects. 

Needless to say, Elon Musk is still locked in. He is still in “wartime CEO” mode.

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As per the CEO, even his recent AI posts about AI are “part of a broader vision and strategy.” He also highlighted that SpaceX’s Starship Flight 10 is launching in a few days, xAI’s Grok 5 is starting its training next month, and Tesla’s Autopilot V14 is also coming next month. As per Musk, “long-term strategy is compelling.”

Elon Musk’s comments are quite accurate. While he may seem to spend all his time on X, after all, he is very much still neck-deep in all his companies’ projects. There is a reason why Musk became known as a visionary, and a lot of it is because he really is intimately involved in all of his companies’ projects. 

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Tesla watchers spot mysterious castings at Fremont Factory

The castings seem to be quite new, as they do not seem to match any of the castings that are currently being used for the Model Y.

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Credit: @metgodinwilderness7130/YouTube

A recent flyover of the Fremont Factory has triggered speculations about Tesla’s ongoing initiatives that are yet to be unveiled publicly. This was hinted at by the sighting of some apparent vehicle castings around the factory that have never really been observed before.

A Fremont Factory flyover

In a recent update, drone operator Met God in Wilderness, who has been chronicling the progress and developments of the Fremont Factory for years, shared some footage from his August 14, 2025 flyover. Based on the video, the Fremont Factory seemed very much alive. Vehicles were being pumped out of the factory, and a rather interestingly covered car could be seen going around the test track.

What is quite fascinating about the footage from the Fremont Factory is the fact that the vehicles that were moving from the production line to the outbound logistics lot are not driven manually anymore. As per Tesla in previous updates, vehicles produced at the Fremont Factory navigate to the outbound logistics lot on their own using Unsupervised FSD

Mysterious castings

Perhaps most interestingly, the drone operator also managed to capture some footage of some castings that were being gathered just outside one of the facility’s sprung structures. These castings seem to be quite new, as they do not seem to match any of the castings that are currently being used for the Model Y. This has brought speculations suggesting that the new components, which seem smaller than standard Model Y megacasts, may be for a different, perhaps more compact, vehicle. 

As per Tesla in its second quarter earnings call, the company actually started the initial production of more affordable models sometime in June. These vehicles, as per Elon Musk, will be made available for consumers in the fourth quarter. “Given that we started in North America and that our goal is to maximize production with higher rates by the end of Q3, we’re going to keep pushing hard on our current models to avoid complexity… We’ll be running with the more affordable models available for everyone in Q4,” Musk said.

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Watch the recent drone footage of the Fremont Factory in the video below.

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