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The Boring Company’s unveiling showed another Musk-driven disruption in the making
Before the opening party for the Hawthorne test tunnel began, Elon Musk gave a rather straightforward presentation about The Boring Company’s technology to members of the media. The discussion provided a number of pertinent updates and new information about the tunneling startup’s activities, several of which were reiterated when Musk took the stage to open the unveiling event.
As the Tesla and SpaceX CEO lightheartedly discussed the updated concepts of The Boring Company’s tunneling technology, it quickly became evident that Tuesday’s event could very well be the start of yet another Elon Musk-driven disruption.
Every single company that Elon Musk started, or played a part in starting, has gone on to be a disruptor of an established industry. In his 20s, Musk and his brother Kimbal shook up the widely established Yellow Pages industry with Zip2. Musk later took on traditional banking with X.com, which eventually merged with PayPal, one of the internet’s most established financial services that are still widely used today. Tesla, an electric car startup Musk backed in its very early days, is now an automaker forcing legacy carmakers to design and release compelling EVs. SpaceX, a company that could be considered as the culmination of Musk’s childhood dreams of interplanetary travel, is becoming more and more prevalent in the US space industry.
Man vs. Traffic pic.twitter.com/UDDE7oucKM
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 19, 2018
In a way, Musk’s penchant for disruption results from his tendency to look at problems and adopt unconventional strategies to arrive at breakthrough results. In the case of SpaceX, for example, it was the company’s capability to reuse rockets that is allowing it to compete in the space industry. Electric vehicles existed before Tesla too, but the company made itself different by creating EVs that were desirable in both design and performance. This same thinking was evident when Musk presented his ideas for The Boring Company. The startup didn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel when it came to tunneling, but the company did employ a number of novel solutions that allowed it to make tunneling a lot faster, for a far lower price.
At the core of The Boring Company’s concepts are its smaller tunnel designs, which feature roughly half the diameter of conventional tunnels. This, according to the startup, reduces costs by 3-4 times. The Boring Company is also aiming to develop ways to increase the speed of its Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs). Traditional TBMs are notable for their slow speed, and Elon Musk has lightly noted that a snail is effectively 14 times faster than a boring machine. As such, the Boring Co. aims to develop TBMs that can actually keep pace with a snail. The Hawthorne test tunnel provides a glimpse of the cost savings associated with the company’s tunnel design as well, as the 1.14-mile project was completed with just $10 million of funding. Musk notes that conventional tunneling projects, which use larger tunnels and slower machines, can balloon to up to $1 billion per mile.
A shrine to the late Gary who inspired it all. Pineapple gummies to celebrate. pic.twitter.com/ZFTbui6TcC
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 19, 2018
Musk has mentioned that The Boring Company has been working on improving the capabilities of its TBMs. For its next-gen machine, Musk stated that the tunneling startup had developed a new TBM cutter head that operates faster, allowing it to process and move dirt in a more efficient manner. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO further noted that The Boring Company is developing a system that will enable reinforcement segments to be created and set up on site. The company is even planning on using the dirt from the cutter head as material for tunnel reinforcements. Such a system would allow the tunneling startup to increase its digging speeds even further, especially considering that conventional tunneling practices usually involve only 10% of actual digging, with 90% of operations usually being consumed by the laying of tunnel reinforcements.
Being a company started by Elon Musk, The Boring Company is in a constant state of innovation. This was evident in the updates to the electric skates design that were initially planned for the Loop system. Concepts of the high-speed tunnels involved vehicles traveling on electric skates. On Tuesday, though, Musk noted that “There won’t be a skate. The vehicle is the skate.” Such a system was adopted in the Hawthorne tunnel’s test rides, where a Model X fitted with electric skates on its front wheels was used to transport passengers through the tunnel. Even the garage-elevator that would be used to lift vehicles back onto the road is created with efficiency in mind, being pre-fabricated and constructed off-site.
Just like his other ventures, The Boring Company has the potential to be a disruptor. With its ultra-high-speed tunnels, the startup might actually help solve the problem of traffic congestion. The Boring Company’s tunnels could even be a stepping stone towards the eventual creation of Hyperloop transportation, which involves pods traveling inside low-pressure tubes at speeds of up to 700 mph. The Boring Company’s disruption might not only be limited to transportation, either, as the startup is also poised to release the Boring Bricks, which are blocks made from tunneling rock that could be used for low-cost housing. Permits for the creation of The Brick Store, a physical outlet where these blocks are set to be sold, have also been.
The Boring Company might be a fun startup, complete with Not-a-Flamethrowers, pet snails, sharp-tongued French knights, and a Monty Python-style watchtower made of Boring Bricks, but beneath all the unveiling event’s fun atmosphere was the sense that there is another disruption in the making — one that could complement the innovations being pushed by SpaceX and Tesla.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Elon Musk
FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan
Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed
FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan
