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Elon Musk shares first look at Tesla Model X zipping through a Boring Company tunnel
After winning the coveted contract to build Chicago’s high-speed transit tunnel, the Boring Company held a press conference at the city’s Block 37 Superstation to formally announce the tunneling startup’s high-profile project. Dubbed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as the “X,” the high-speed tunnel system is designed to link downtown Chicago to O’Hare Airport.
Prior to the press conference, The Boring Company shared a video of a Tesla Model X being carried by “electric skates” through a tunnel on Twitter. While incredibly brief, the short clip gives an idea of the speed that Chicago commuters can expect from the tunneling startup’s transportation system.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made an appearance at Block 37 Superstation, sharing the stage with the city mayor. As noted by Chicago Tribune reporter Bill Ruthart on Twitter, Emanuel was very optimistic about the Boring Company’s project, stating that the high-speed tunnels would “not cost the city a penny” and that it builds on Chicago’s “legacy of innovation.” Emanuel noted that part of the reason behind the city’s decision to select the Boring Co. was Musk’s record and vision.
“We’re taking a bet on a guy who doesn’t like to fail — and his resources. There are a bunch of Teslas on the road. He put SpaceX together. He’s proven something. The risk — with no financial risk — is I’m betting on a guy who has proven in space, auto and now, a tunnel, that he can innovate and create something of the future,” the Chicago Mayor said.
Addressing Chicago’s press, Elon Musk expressed his thanks at the city and Mayor Emanuel for placing his faith in the Boring Co. Musk noted that he hopes to start digging in as soon as four months. Digging shall commence from both Loop and O’Hare ends. When asked about the high-speed tunnels’ funding, Musk noted that he is confident he can raise the estimated ~$1 billion for the project, considering that he has already raised $22 billion among all of his companies. The serial tech entrepreneur also noted that the downtown Chicago-O’Hare tunnel is “quite economically appealing.” Lastly, Musk announced that The Boring Company would tap both union and non-union workers for manpower.
The city of Chicago formally announces The Boring Company’s downtown-O’Hare tunneling project. [Credit: The Boring Company]
The Boring Company’s high-speed Chicago tunnel system is expected to accommodate almost 2,000 passengers per direction every hour, with pods leaving every 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Cost for the high-speed rail is estimated to be between $20-$25 per person, roughly half the price of a typical ride-share or cab. The trip is expected to last only 12 minutes with pods traveling more than 100 mph. The upcoming project’s preliminary route will be Block 37, Randolph St. west, under the Kennedy north, north under Halsted, northwest under Milwaukee, northwest under Elston before again crossing under the Kennedy near Bryn Mawr Avenue and heading west to O’Hare, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Boring Company and the Chicago mayor have noted that it is far too early to provide a concrete timeline for the completion of the high-speed tunnel system. Apart from handling the costs of the project, The Boring Company will also construct a new station at O’Hare and help in the completion of the Block 37 Superstation. Overall, the ~$1 billion tunnel is part of Chicago’s $8.5 billion overhaul of O’Hare Airport.
The Boring Company’s contract with Chicago stands as the tunneling startup’s first high-profile project. So far, the Boring Co. has only embarked on smaller-scale test projects in Los Angeles, as well as a tunnel beneath SpaceX in Hawthorne, CA, which will offer free demo rides to the public upon regulatory approval.
Elon Musk
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.
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!”
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.
Elon Musk
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
