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

Credit: The City of Kyle

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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. 

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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.

  • $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.

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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.

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Elon Musk

Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed

The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.

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Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has ordered the closure of an investigation involving Elon Musk and social media platform X. The inquiry had been pending for about two years and examined whether the platform was used to coordinate attacks against members of the judiciary.

The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.

According to a report from Agencia Brasil, the investigation conducted by the Federal Police did not find evidence that X deliberately attempted to attack the judiciary or circumvent court orders.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet concluded that the irregularities identified during the probe did not indicate fraudulent intent.

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Justice Moraes accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation and ruled that the investigation should be closed. Under the ruling, the case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges.

The inquiry stemmed from concerns that content on X may have enabled online attacks against Supreme Court justices or violated rulings requiring the suspension of certain accounts under investigation.

Justice Moraes had previously taken several enforcement actions related to the platform during the broader dispute involving social media regulation in Brazil.

These included ordering a nationwide block of the platform, freezing Starlink accounts, and imposing fines on X totaling about $5.2 million. Authorities also froze financial assets linked to X and SpaceX through Starlink to collect unpaid penalties and seized roughly $3.3 million from the companies’ accounts.

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Moraes also imposed daily fines of up to R$5 million, about $920,000, for alleged evasion of the X ban and established penalties of R$50,000 per day for VPN users who attempted to bypass the restriction.

Brazil remains an important market for X, with roughly 17 million users, making it one of the platform’s larger user bases globally.

The country is also a major market for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, which has surpassed one million subscribers in Brazil.

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Elon Musk

FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan

Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.

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Credit: @SecWar/X

U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Amazon after the company opposed SpaceX’s proposal to launch a large satellite constellation that could function as an orbital data center network.

Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.

Amazon recently urged the FCC to reject SpaceX’s application to deploy a constellation of up to 1 million low Earth orbit satellites that could serve as artificial intelligence data centers in space.

The company described the proposal as a “lofty ambition rather than a real plan,” arguing that SpaceX had not provided sufficient details about how the system would operate.

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Carr responded by pointing to Amazon’s own satellite deployment progress.

“Amazon should focus on the fact that it will fall roughly 1,000 satellites short of meeting its upcoming deployment milestone, rather than spending their time and resources filing petitions against companies that are putting thousands of satellites in orbit,” Carr wrote on X.

Amazon has declined to comment on the statement.

Amazon has been working to deploy its Project Kuiper satellite network, which is intended to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. The company has invested more than $10 billion in the program and has launched more than 200 satellites since April of last year.

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Amazon has also asked the FCC for a 24-month extension, until July 2028, to meet a requirement to deploy roughly 1,600 satellites by July 2026, as noted in a CNBC report.

SpaceX’s Starlink network currently has nearly 10,000 satellites in orbit and serves roughly 10 million customers. The FCC has also authorized SpaceX to deploy 7,500 additional satellites as the company continues expanding its global satellite internet network.

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Energy

Tesla Energy gains UK license to sell electricity to homes and businesses

The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.

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Credit: Tesla Energy/X

Tesla Energy has received a license to supply electricity in the United Kingdom, opening the door for the company to serve homes and businesses in the country.

The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.

According to Ofgem, the license took effect at 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday and applies to Great Britain.

The approval allows Tesla’s energy business to sell electricity directly to customers in the region, as noted in a Bloomberg News report.

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Tesla has already expanded similar services in the United States. In Texas, the company offers electricity plans that allow Tesla owners to charge their vehicles at a lower cost while also feeding excess electricity back into the grid.

Tesla already has a sizable presence in the UK market. According to price comparison website U-switch, there are more than 250,000 Tesla electric vehicles in the country and thousands of Tesla home energy storage systems.

Ofgem also noted that Tesla Motors Ltd., a separate entity incorporated in England and Wales, received an electricity generation license in June 2020.

The new UK license arrives as Tesla continues expanding its global energy business.

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Last year, Tesla Energy retained the top position in the global battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator market for the second consecutive year. According to Wood Mackenzie’s latest rankings, Tesla held about 15% of global market share in 2024.

The company also maintained a dominant position in North America, where it captured roughly 39% market share in the region.

At the same time, competition in the energy storage sector is increasing. Chinese companies such as Sungrow have been expanding their presence globally, particularly in Europe.

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