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The Boring Company to sell LEGO-like bricks made from tunneling rock

[Grahic: PXSphere via CC0 and The Boring Company]

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Elon Musk recently announced the next merchandise offered by the Boring Company — life-sized interlocking bricks that could be used to construct “sculptures and buildings.”

According to Musk, the blocks, which would be coming from its tunneling projects, would be rated for California seismic loads, making them strong and durable. The bricks will also be lightweight and feature a precise surface finish, making them easy to assemble.

“New Boring Company merch coming soon. Lifesize LEGO-like interlocking bricks made from tunneling rock that you can use to create sculptures & buildings. Rated for California seismic loads, so super strong, but bored in the middle, like an aircraft wing spar, so not heavy.”

Musk added several new details about the Boring Company’s interlocking bricks in succeeding tweets, stating that the first “kit” that the company would release would be the Ancient Egypt series, comprised of the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Temple of Horus, and other notable landmarks in the country. Exhibiting his humor, Musk noted that the Boring Company bricks are guaranteed to be flamethrower-proof.

While The Boring Co.’s interlocking bricks seem like a fun, weekend project for those who love working with their hands, Musk also confirmed that the blocks could easily be used for more humanitarian purposes such as the construction of low-cost houses. This was addressed by one of his followers, @LeonsArcade, who asked Musk if the bricks could be used for this purpose.  

“Yeah, the boring bricks are interlocking with a precise surface finish, so two people could build the outer walls of a small house in a day or so,” Musk responded.

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While the Boring Company’s bricks might seem like a novel item like the startup’s previous offerings — the flamethrower and the hat — the product has actually been teased by the tunneling startup for a long time, as could be seen in the company’s FAQ on its official website.

According to The Boring Co., the recycling of dirt excavated from its tunnels would be one of its key projects, seeing as the bricks could be used for both the tunnel linings themselves, or in structures such as houses. As noted by the tunneling startup, earth bricks from its tunneling projects would help the company reduce its environmental impact and tunneling costs, since concrete production accounts for 4.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Boring Company is investigating technologies that will recycle the earth into useful bricks to be used to build structures.  This is not a new concept, as buildings have been constructed from Earth for thousands of years including, according to recent evidence, the Pyramids.  These bricks can potentially be used as a portion of the tunnel lining itself, which is typically built from concrete.”

As we noted in a previous report, The Boring Company has raised $10 million from the sale of its flamethrowers (later named to Not A Flamethrower). The fiery product, which was offered for $500, was manufactured for a limited 20,000-unit run. The (Not A) Flamethrower sold very well, with 4,000 units being sold within 24 hours of its release. The tunneling startup has also made progress in its bid for the Chicago-O’Hare new transportation system, with the Boring Company being one of two finalists for the project. 

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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 and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides

The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.

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Ashok Elluswamy

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and AI Director Ashok Elluswamy celebrated Christmas Eve by sharing personal experiences with Robotaxi vehicles that had no safety monitor or occupant in the driver’s seat. Musk described the system’s “perfect driving” around Austin, while Elluswamy posted video from the back seat, calling it “an amazing experience.”

The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.

Elon and Ashok’s firsthand Robotaxi insights

Prior to Musk and the Tesla AI Director’s posts, sightings of unmanned Teslas navigating public roads were widely shared on social media. One such vehicle was spotted in Austin, Texas, which Elon Musk acknowleged by stating that “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car.” 

Based on his Christmas Eve post, Musk seemed to have tested an unmanned Tesla himself. “A Tesla with no safety monitor in the car and me sitting in the passenger seat took me all around Austin on Sunday with perfect driving,” Musk wrote in his post.

Elluswamy responded with a 2-minute video showing himself in the rear of an unmanned Tesla. The video featured the vehicle’s empty front seats, as well as its smooth handling through real-world traffic. He captioned his video with the words, “It’s an amazing experience!”

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Towards Unsupervised operations

During an xAI Hackathon earlier this month, Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla owed be removing Safety Monitors from its Robotaxis in Austin in just three weeks. “Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. So there will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them. Not even anyone in the passenger seat in about three weeks,” he said. Musk echoed similar estimates at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting and the Q3 2025 earnings call.

Considering the insights that were posted Musk and Elluswamy, it does appear that Tesla is working hard towards operating its Robotaxis with no safety monitors. This is quite impressive considering that the service was launched just earlier this year.

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Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million

The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.

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Credit: Starlink/X

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark. 

The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.

9 million customers

In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day. 

“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote. 

That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.

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Starlink’s momentum

Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.

Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future. 

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NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”

After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.

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Credit: Grok Imagine

NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”

After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”

Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions

Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14

“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X. 

Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”

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The Physical Turing Test

The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning. 

This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.

Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.

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