News
The Boring Co. becomes finalist for San Antonio, Texas transport project
The Boring Company (TBC) is one of the finalists vying for a tunneling project in San Antonio, Texas. The project will run between the San Antonio International Airport and downtown.
The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (Alamo RMA) is expected to make a decision by Wednesday, March 16. According to Alamo RMA Chairman Michael Lynd Jr. the board could select a finalist and start negotiating a development agreement or postpone the decision. The board may also decide not to move forward with the transportation project altogether. The last two companies up for the project are Elon Musk’s tunneling company and Bexar Automated Transport (BAT). Both have vastly different proposals.
“Even if we decide to move forward with a group this week, there’s no assurance that we’ll get to a point that we’re comfortable that the concept is viable,” said Lynd.
The Boring Company’s Proposal
Rumors of a Boring Company tunnel in San Antonio spread last year. TBC proposed twin underground tunnels to the Alamo RMA in a presentation dated January 2022. Tesla vehicles would transport riders between the international airport and downtown.
The Boring Company estimated that the cost of the twin tunnels would be between $241 million to $298 million. TBC would self-finance the project before turning it over to the board. San Antonio Express-News suggested that Elon Musk’s tunneling company aimed to generate income from the project by operating the loop, similar to its deal with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) with the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) Loop.
In Sin City, TBC runs the LVCC Loop for the LVCVA. The LVCC Loop offers free rides to convention center attendees and generates income for the LVCVA through ads, sponsorships, and facility rentals.
The Boring Company has another tunneling project in SIn City, called the Vegas Loop. TBC owns and operates the Vegas Loop. Since the Vegas Loop is not operational yet, the Alamo RMA does not know how much TBC would charge local passengers or the revenue the twin tunnels could generate. However, TBC did release a list of possible fare prices for the Vegas Loop in 2021. Prices started at $5 for a 3-minute ride through a 2.8-mile tunnel.
Bexar Automated Transport’s Plans
The other finalist for the San Antonio transportation project, BAT, proposed an autonomous all-electric bus system. BAT’s proposed bus system would travel through a combination of elevated and underground tracks. The buses could accommodate up to eight passengers per trip, running at 45 mph between the airport and the Convention Center. BAT estimated its proposed tunneling system would cost $330 million. The company also stated it would require a public subsidy for construction and recommended that VIA Metropolitan Transit operate the system.
Documents from Praetor Capital forecasted that BAT’s proposed transportation system could charge passengers $6.50 per trip. BAT estimates ridership to be about 500,000 per year for a $13.7 million revenue.
The Alamo RMA board believes it could sell bonds to finance a transportation system project. Ultimately, the final decision seems to rely on finances.
“Ultimately, it’s got to be financible. As the RMA, we don’t have a bunch of money sitting in a bank account that we can throw at a project like this,” Lynd stated.
The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, reach out to me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.
The Tesla Semi is entering a new Pilot Program with Paper Transport, LLC (PTI), a Wisconsin-based transportation provider. The company will test the Semi’s Long Range configuration through “dedicated operations within the Chicago market.”
Chicago presents an interesting challenge for the Semi, as it will be a colder-weather climate that will test the Semi’s ability to operate in lower temperatures and in potentially large accumulations of snow. This is something Tesla has been testing with the Semi in Alaska and even in Northern California during the colder months, but Chicago will present a truly tough midwestern winter.
Tesla Semi spotted on journey home after winter performance testing
PTI says it is using the Semi to evaluate its strategy of reducing transportation emissions while maintaining performance, reliability, and cost efficiency. These are major arguments for the Semi being introduced into new fleets.
CEO of PTI Tyler Ellison said:
“PTI has been a leader in sustainable transportation solutions for over 15 years. We take a consultative approach to helping customers identify and implement the right transportation solution for their network. Our partnership with Tesla expands our portfolio alongside renewable natural gas and intermodal, giving customers more ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions without compromising service or economics.”
PTI is far from the first company to adopt the Semi within a fleet, as Tesla entered strategic agreements with PepsiCo. and its subsidiary Frito-Lay for a Pilot Program that extended throughout the California region.
Tesla has let companies like those utilize the Semi to determine whether it would be suitable for their operations. Additionally, Tesla gets valuable information regarding the Semi’s performance, knowing what to improve and what is ideal for companies that will utilize the all-electric truck for regional and nationwide logistics.
PTI plans to utilize the Long Range configuration, which is priced at $290,000 and features a range of approximately 500 miles, a three-motor powertrain, up to 800 kW of drive power, and consumption of just 1.7 kWh per mile.
Tesla Semi pricing revealed after company uncovers trim levels
VP of Maintenance at PTI, Bryan Ellen, added:
“We are excited to partner with Tesla, leveraging their ever-evolving technology. We are bullish in our estimation of the parallels available between our dedicated model and the efficiency of their fully electric Class 8 tractor. We anticipate a growing synergy between our businesses as we work to facilitate this sustainable solution for our customers.”
PTI has logged more than 87 million miles using sources like compressed and renewable gas, but now is looking to take it a step further with fully electric operations.
Tesla revealed on Monday that it is building a new autonomous vehicle at Gigafactory Texas, its plant just outside of the City of Austin. This particular vehicle will be geared toward those who are in need of a wheelchair-accessible car that would require no human driver for operation.
According to a new report from Wired, Tesla’s Senior Policy Advisor, India Herdman, told members of the Washington D.C. City Council on Monday:
“We are in development for a purpose-built, wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle. We know that paratransit can be very difficult, and people who are confined to wheelchairs permanently should still be able to move around freely, so that is an active product being built by Tesla in Texas.”
This builds upon what CEO Elon Musk said last year on X, which confirmed the company was working on accessible rides within its Robotaxi platform, which currently is confined to the Model Y.
Absolutely
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2025
Tesla is also developing the Cybercab, which started employee rides last week. However, this vehicle is not necessarily geared toward wheelchair accessibility.
That leaves a major gap in the autonomous ride-sharing program that Tesla is attempting to build; the company has been pretty clear that it does not want to complicate its manufacturing lines by bringing in a wide array of body styles.
However, it seems necessary to have something larger that could help transport people to appointments when they cannot drive. For wheelchair accessibility, the Robovan, which was unveiled at the “We, Robot” event in October 2024, seems to be the most ideal solution:
Herdman did not indicate whether she was referring to the Robovan or if Tesla is building yet another body style that is geared toward full autonomy but also caters to the handicapped.
Tesla might need to develop something specifically for the handicapped in order to align with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in transportation services. Uber was hit with a lawsuit late last year for “refusing to reasonably modify its policies, practices, or procedures where necessary to avoid discriminating against riders with disabilities.”
Tesla would obviously like to avoid this.
It will be interesting to see what Tesla will do with this project, and whether it will introduce something new to the market or just continue with the Robovan.
Tesla weirdly confirmed that its steering wheel-less and pedal-less Cybercab vehicle is now in the process of giving employees rides, a huge milestone for the vehicle program.
But the entire thing was super strange. On Friday, Tesla released a video stating that there was “Cool news from Giga Texas” and that employees were now taking rides in Cybercabs that have no manual controls. The units seen on public roads are engineering vehicles that have manual controls inside, a necessity as Tesla moved through the testing phase.
However, Tesla removed the video and reposted it shortly after with a more vague title. It seems like the employee rides are still going, but the video was adjusted slightly. The initial upload showed employees doing things like watching movies and adjusting the climate, but these snippets were removed in the second upload.
Cool news from Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/gvbG456Tzw
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) July 11, 2026
Both images below were uploaded with the first video, but were removed after Tesla re-uploaded the announcement. These are not available in the second upload
Credit: Tesla
Credit: Tesla
Nevertheless, the announcement from Tesla is that the Cybercab is operating with employees inside who can control the vehicle’s audio, video, climate, and destination settings through their smartphone app.
Tesla has already been testing Cybercab engineering units, but last month, it was able to self-certify for SAE Level 4, which would enable unsupervised self-driving in Texas. The company is moving toward that, and the plans have always been to launch Cybercab rides this year.
The Cybercab is potentially looked at as the next generation of Tesla’s mobility leg. For the past 15 years, the company has been known as somewhat of an automaker, among many other things. However, these passenger vehicles that Tesla has manufactured are now moving into a new realm, as they will eventually drive themselves with no supervision thanks to the Full Self-Driving suite.
The Cybercab is just the next step of that: a true vehicle developed for the sole purpose of ride-hailing. It has no human controls, it has only two seats, and it will get passengers from Point A to Point B with no awkward driver, no need for manual inputs, and with no stress.
Tesla is moving forward with other developments related to the Cybercab project as well. However, the big announcement will come when Tesla finally announces that it is launching Cybercab rides to the general public, something that it plans to launch either late this year or early 2027.
Tesla Semi enters new Pilot Program with interesting challenge
Tesla is building a wheelchair-accessible Robotaxi
