News
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.
Tesla made a dramatic change to the Online Design Studio to show its plans for Full Self-Driving, a major part of the company’s plans moving forward, as CEO Elon Musk has been extremely clear on the direction moving forward.
With Tesla taking a stand and removing the ability to purchase Full Self-Driving outright next month, it is already taking steps to initiate that with owners and potential buyers.
On Thursday night, the company updated its Online Design Studio to reflect that in a new move that now lists the three purchase options that are currently available: Monthly Subscription, One-Time Purchase, or Add Later:
🚨 Check out the change Tesla made to its Online Design Studio:
It now lists the Monthly Subscription as an option for Full Self-Driving
It also shows the outright purchase option as expiring on February 14 pic.twitter.com/pM6Svmyy8d
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 23, 2026
This change replaces the former option for purchasing Full Self-Driving at the time of purchase, which was a simple and single box to purchase the suite outright. Subscriptions were activated through the vehicle exclusively.
However, with Musk announcing that Tesla would soon remove the outright purchase option, it is clearer than ever that the Subscription plan is where the company is headed.
The removal of the outright purchase option has been a polarizing topic among the Tesla community, especially considering that there are many people who are concerned about potential price increases or have been saving to purchase it for $8,000.
This would bring an end to the ability to pay for it once and never have to pay for it again. With the Subscription strategy, things are definitely going to change, and if people are paying for their cars monthly, it will essentially add $100 per month to their payment, pricing some people out. The price will increase as well, as Musk said on Thursday, as it improves in functionality.
I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve.
The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD). https://t.co/YDKhXN3aaG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2026
Those skeptics have grown concerned that this will actually lower the take rate of Full Self-Driving. While it is understandable that FSD would increase in price as the capabilities improve, there are arguments for a tiered system that would allow owners to pay for features that they appreciate and can afford, which would help with data accumulation for the company.
Musk’s new compensation package also would require Tesla to have 10 million active FSD subscriptions, but people are not sure if this will move the needle in the correct direction. If Tesla can potentially offer a cheaper alternative that is not quite unsupervised, things could improve in terms of the number of owners who pay for it.
News
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end with no interventions.
A Tesla Model S has completed the first-ever full Cannonball Run using Full Self-Driving (FSD), traveling from Los Angeles to New York with zero interventions. The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end, fulfilling a long-discussed benchmark for autonomy.
A full FSD Cannonball Run
As per a report from The Drive, a 2024 Tesla Model S with AI4 and FSD v14.2.2.3 completed the 3,081-mile trip from Redondo Beach in Los Angeles to midtown Manhattan in New York City. The drive was completed by Alex Roy, a former automotive journalist and investor, along with a small team of autonomy experts.
Roy said FSD handled all driving tasks for the entirety of the route, including highway cruising, lane changes, navigation, and adverse weather conditions. The trip took a total of 58 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 64 mph, and about 10 hours were spent charging the vehicle. In later comments, Roy noted that he and his team cleaned out the Model S’ cameras during their stops to keep FSD’s performance optimal.
History made
The historic trip was quite impressive, considering that the journey was in the middle of winter. This meant that FSD didn’t just deal with other cars on the road. The vehicle also had to handle extreme cold, snow, ice, slush, and rain.
As per Roy in a post on X, FSD performed so well during the trip that the journey would have been completed faster if the Model S did not have people onboard. “Elon Musk was right. Once an autonomous vehicle is mature, most human input is error. A comedy of human errors added hours and hundreds of miles, but FSD stunned us with its consistent and comfortable behavior,” Roy wrote in a post on X.
Roy’s comments are quite notable as he has previously attempted Cannonball Runs using FSD on December 2024 and February 2025. Neither were zero intervention drives.
Elon Musk
Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online
The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders.
Tesla removed its basic Autopilot package as a standard feature in the United States. The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders, and shifts the company’s strategy towards paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions.
Tesla removes Autopilot
As per observations from the electric vehicle community on social media, Tesla no longer lists Autopilot as standard in its vehicles in the U.S. This suggests that features such as lane-centering and Autosteer have been removed as standard equipment. Previously, most Tesla vehicles came with Autopilot by default, which offers Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer.
The change resulted in backlash from some Tesla owners and EV observers, particularly as competing automakers, including mainstream players like Toyota, offer features like lane-centering as standard on many models, including budget vehicles.
That being said, the removal of Autopilot suggests that Tesla is concentrating its autonomy roadmap around FSD subscriptions rather than bundled driver-assistance features. It would be interesting to see how Tesla manages its vehicles’ standard safety features, as it seems out of character for Tesla to make its cars less safe over time.
Musk announces FSD price increases
Following the Autopilot changes, Elon Musk stated on X that Tesla is planning to raise subscription prices for FSD as its capabilities improve. In a post on X, Musk stated that the current $99-per-month price for supervised FSD would increase over time, especially as the system itself becomes more robust.
“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (Unsupervised FSD),” Musk wrote.
At the time of his recent post, Tesla still offers FSD as a one-time purchase for $8,000, but Elon Musk has confirmed that this option will be discontinued on February 14, leaving subscriptions as the only way to access the system.
Tesla makes big Full Self-Driving change to reflect future plans
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
