Connect with us

News

The Boring Company in talks with Kyle, TX for pedestrian tunnel

Credit: The City of Kyle

Published

on

Update: The City of Kyle informed Teslarati that the Council directed staff to negotiate a contract with The Boring Company for a pedestrian underpass on April 5, 2022. Action has been postponed regarding the approval of a professional services agreement between TBC and the City of Kyle. The approval for The Boring Company’s pedestrian underpass may be discussed at the next Council meeting on May 3, 2022, but there is no solid date yet. The approval will make it back to the Council’s agenda when staff deems it is ready for presentation.

The Boring Company (TBC) submitted a proposal for a pedestrian tunnel project in the City of Kyle, Texas. 

Elon Musk’s Boring Company submitted a preliminary engineering proposal to the City of Kyle on April 7. The project focuses on the construction of a pedestrian underpass beneath the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), located south of Kyle Parkway/FM1626. The pedestrian underpass will connect the Plum Creek subdivision and a mixed-use project with destination dining to the east. 

Credit: The City of Kyle

According to The Boring Company’s proposal, Kyle’s Railroad Pedestrian Underpass will accommodate multiple modes of transportation, despite its name. Besides pedestrians, the underpass will accommodate electric vehicles and bicycles. 

TBC will build its standard 12-foot inner diameter and 13.5-foot outer diameter tunnel for the Kyle pedestrian tunnel project. According to The Boring Company website, its pedestrian tunnels include LED lighting, emergency backup lighting, and a CCTV video system. TBC’s pedestrian tunnels are available in two lengths: 100 feet to 2,500 feet. 

The Boring Company’s contract with the City of Kyle was scheduled for approval on Tuesday night, April 19. However, Kyle’s mayor told KXAN news that the staff was requested to postpone the item “while attorney’s finalize details.” 

If TBC gets approved, the City of Kyle will pay $50,000 for deliverables, listed below.

Advertisement
-
  • $5,000 for a site visit
  • $20,000 to initiate drilling for geotechnical investigation
  • $15,000 for Geotechnical Laboratory
  • $10,000 for a Preliminary Engineering Report and Construction Cost Proposal

The Boring Company has 45 days upon receiving approval to accomplish each deliverable. The city will pay for each deliverable after TBC completes it. 

The Boring Company has a few other projects in Texas besides the City of Kyle’s pedestrian underpass. Elon Musk’s tunneling company is also in talks with the City of Austin and San Antonio for potential projects. 

Read the The Boring Company’s proposal to the City of Kyle below.

The Boring Company’s pedestrian tunnel proposal for the City of Kyle by Maria Merano on Scribd

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.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla Cybercab fleet grows in Austin ahead of launch event

Published

on

Credit: Teslarati

Tesla is bolstering its Cybercab fleet with the State of Texas’s regulatory bodies ahead of the planned launch of the all-electric ride-hailing vehicle this Thursday.

Seven purpose-built Tesla Cybercabs have been added to Texas’s official automated vehicle registry, appearing in the Texas Motor Carrier Credentialing System (TxMCCS) public lookup just three days before Tesla’s invite-only Cybercab launch event in Austin on September 3.

The records, visible through TxDMV’s Motor Carrier and Automated Motor Vehicle Operator Lookup, list seven 2026 Tesla Cybercabs under Tesla Robotaxi, LLC. Their VINs begin with the 5YJA prefix, distinct from the 7SAYG Model Y robotaxis that already dominate Tesla’s Texas fleet.

Community trackers that scrape the same public database recorded the new entries on August 31, bringing Tesla’s authorized Texas robotaxi total to 276 vehicles: 269 Model Ys and the seven Cybercabs:

Texas Senate Bill 2807, which took effect in late May 2026, created a self-certification framework for commercial Level 4 operations. Operators file through TxMCCS, attest to SAE Level 4 capability, maintain insurance, and keep an active vehicle list.

Tesla completed that process months earlier for its existing Model Y Robotaxi service, which has carried paying passengers in Austin, Dallas, Houston and other markets. Adding the Cybercabs to the same authorization means the new two-seat, steering-wheel-free vehicles are now legally recognized for commercial use on Texas roads.

The timing is deliberate as Tesla scheduled the September 3 event at its Austin campus after sending invitations to selected Robotaxi riders and other guests. The company has described the evening as a chance to “experience the future of full autonomy” and plans to livestream it.

Production Cybercabs, which lack pedals and a steering wheel, have been rolling off the Giga Texas line for months; some earlier examples still carried temporary driver controls for data collection. Registering a small fleet of the finished design immediately before the public event signals that Tesla intends to move the purpose-built vehicle from factory and test tracks into the same Robotaxi app already used by Model Y passengers.

The seven units remain a tiny fraction of Tesla’s overall Texas authorization and far smaller than competing fleets. Registration does not automatically equal unsupervised public rides; it is the legal prerequisite.

Still, the sudden appearance of Cybercab VINs in the state’s lookup system, after a year of Model Y-only listings, is the clearest official confirmation yet that Tesla’s dedicated robotaxi hardware is entering the regulatory pipeline at the same moment the company is preparing to show it to invited guests and a global livestream audience.

Whether those seven vehicles appear at the September 3 event or begin carrying passengers shortly afterward, their presence in TxMCCS marks a concrete regulatory step that has been anticipated since the Cybercab concept was first revealed.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla expands driverless Robotaxi geofence in Austin

Published

on

Credit: @JoeTegtmeyer/X

Tesla has expanded the operational geofence for its driverless Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, marking the first such increase in some time. The updated Service Area for Robotaxi in Austin now spans about 288 square miles and is roughly 9 percent larger than the previous boundary.

This incremental growth adds approximately 24 square miles of coverage, bringing the prior zone of roughly 264 square miles into a broader footprint that better serves northern suburbs.

The expansion extends the geofence northward toward Pflugerville along the US 183 corridor, incorporating additional neighborhoods north of the Domain and areas such as Mesa Park. These additions include higher-end residential and commercial districts that previously sat just outside the allowed operating zone.

Riders can now request unsupervised trips that begin or end in these newly included locations, provided the entire route remains inside the digital boundary:

Tesla first launched public Robotaxi operations in Austin in mid-2025 with a modest initial zone of about 20 square miles. Subsequent enlargements in 2025 and early 2026 steadily grew the map until it covered much of the metropolitan area.

After the last major update roughly ten months earlier, the company held the boundary steady while it collected additional miles and refined the FSD suite.

The modest nine percent increase still matters for daily utility. Longer trips become possible, more residents gain access, and the fleet can accumulate more diverse real-world data across new road types and traffic patterns. Observers note that the added territory aligns with existing Tesla service infrastructure, which could support more efficient vehicle staging in the North end of Austin.

Although the geofence has grown, Tesla continues to operate a relatively small unsupervised fleet in the city. The company has emphasized safety and software readiness over rapid geographic scaling. This latest map update signals that Tesla remains committed to expanding Robotaxi availability in its home market as it prepares for further software improvements and potential Cybercab deployments.

The 288-square-mile zone now gives Austin riders one of the larger driverless service areas currently available in the United States.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s Grok can basically control anything in your Tesla now

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update turns Grok from a talking companion into a true in-car controller, with considerably expanded capabilities. Where the assistant once answered questions and handled navigation, it can now operate hardware and software through ordinary speech, including several requests at the same time.

Grok has become incredibly robust over the past few quarters, and this new ability that Tesla has included with its Summer Update is perhaps the clearest sign of just how capable it has become.

You can issue many commands to Grok at once, and each will be taken care of: anything from headlight control to climate adjustments to mirror folding can now all be taken care of with a simple sentence spoken toward Grok:

Here’s another example I used in my Model Y:

Tesla’s official Release Notes list the core powers of Grok’s new capabilities: Grok can place phone calls from a paired phone, search a streaming service and queue music, adjust climate, and search the Controls panel. Drivers can also ask it questions about the vehicle or the latest features included in a recent software update.

It can also take care of driving settings, dynamics, and other relevant preferences that deal with how the car operates and handles.

Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features

It’s also more of a use case than a novelty feature. Grok was great for learning about something that was being pondered while Full Self-Driving was taking care of the major automotive responsibilities, but it did have some useful functionality when it came to navigation.

Another less-noted improvement is the swift transition that Grok has from thinking of its answer to giving you one. In the past, it would take a few seconds for Grok to truly come up with a valuable response. It now seems that it is improving, at least slightly.

Continue Reading