The Boring Company (TBC) is an American infrastructure, tunnel construction service, and equipment company founded by Elon Musk. TBC was founded as a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2017, and was spun off as a separate corporation in 2018. TBC has completed multiple test tunnels and one tunneling project that is open to the public.
In 2018, TBC completed one test tunnel in Los Angeles County, California. In 2021, TBC completed the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) Loop, a three-station transportation system with 1.7 miles of tunnels. As of April 2024, a segment to Resorts World Las Vegas is also open, and tunnels to Encore and Westgate resorts are being finalized. The system is planned to expand to a total of 68 miles of tunnels.
Many other TBC projects in cities across the United States were announced, but subsequently became inactive or were canceled.[3]
In October 2025 TBC began trialing self-driving vehicles with a safety driver on one section of the Las Vegas Loop.[4]
History
Musk announced the idea of the Boring Company in December 2016,[5] and it was officially registered as "TBC – The Boring Company" on January 11, 2017.[6] Musk cited difficulty with Los Angeles traffic, and what he sees as limitations of its two-dimensional transportation network, as his early inspiration for the project.[7][8] The Boring Company was formed as a SpaceX subsidiary.[9] According to Musk, the company's goal is to enhance tunneling speed enough such that establishing a tunnel network is financially feasible.[10][11]
Promotion
Merchandise
In 2018, the company began offering 20,000 "flamethrowers" for preordering.[21] The "flamethrower" was a blow torch shaped to look like a gun and is legal in all U.S. states except Maryland.[22] All 20,000 "flamethrowers" were sold in just a few days.[23] After customs officials said that they would not allow imports of any items called "flamethrowers", Musk announced that he would rename them to "Not-A-Flamethrower" since the devices were in fact akin to roofing torches. Musk announced separate sales of a fire extinguisher, which he described as "overpriced... but this one comes with a cool sticker".[24]
Not-a-Boring Competition
Machines
The first boring machine used by TBC was Godot, a conventional tunnel boring machine (TBM) made by Lovat.[28][29] The next line of machines were called Prufrock.[30] The company claimed that Prufrock 2 could dig up to a mile per week, with the goal to dig up to seven miles per day for the next machine.[31][32] Expert opinion on whether the company can speed up tunneling is mixed, with Marte Gutierrez, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Colorado School of Mines noting that Musk may try to achieve this by digging tunnels with a smaller diameter[30]
Process
Porpoising
Replace tunnel entry and exit excavations by having the TBM "porpoise" in and out of the ground. The TBM is trucked in and placed at an angle to the ground. (Prufrock 2 and 3 required an earthen ramp to set it at the correct angle before beginning to tunnel). It then bores into the ground. It changes angles as it continues boring, eventually returning to the surface and being loaded onto the truck.[33]
In conventional systems, one large excavation is made at the tunnel entrance to allow the TBM to be lowered to the tunnel depth and assembled. A similar excavation is made at the tunnel exit to allow the TBM to be disassembled and lifted out.[33]
Liner truck
TBC moves tunnel lining segments into the tunnel via an all-electric autonomous, wheeled liner truck powered by motors and batteries from Tesla. Conventional systems typically use a diesel rail system, which must be constructed along with the tunnel lining.
Active projects
Hawthorne test tunnel
Vegas Loop
Dubai Loop
Music City Loop
Inactive and cancelled projects
United States
Washington, DC to Baltimore, Maryland
In 2017, Musk announced plans to build a Hyperloop connecting Washington, DC to Baltimore.[36] This was supplanted in 2018 by a proposal to build a route following the Baltimore–Washington Parkway.[37] The Maryland Transportation Authority officially approved the project.[38] In 2019, a draft Environmental Assessment for the project was completed.[39] As of 2021, the project was no longer listed on the company website, the federal government had received no indication the company wanted to move forward, TBC dropped a Maryland lobbyist it had hired for the project, and the company declined to comment on the project.
Criticism
Civil engineering experts and tunneling industry veterans questioned whether TBC could render tunnels faster and cheaper than competitors. Tunnelling Journal dismissed the company as a "vanity project".[64] The low capacity of TBC tunnels make them inefficient compared to existing public transit, with only a fraction of the capacity of a conventional rapid-transit subway.[65][66][67][68]
Musk's planned tunnels were criticized for lacking such safety features as emergency exit corridors, ventilation systems, or fire suppression. In addition, the single lane tunnels left it impossible for vehicles to pass one another in the event of collision, mechanical failure, or other traffic obstruction, and instead would shut down the entire tunnel section.[69]
See also
- Underground construction
External links
- .
- 55 minutes, video of information session on the vision of the Boring Company and the project in Los Angeles, with Q&A.
References
- [Exclusive] Elon Musk: A future worth getting excited about – TED – Tesla Gigafactory interview Youtube, TED, April 17, 2022, retrieved 19 April 2022^
- Aaron Holmes, Sam Tabahriti. The CEO of Elon Musk's Boring Company who reportedly slept at Twitter HQ with his wife and baby once owned a bar called 'Thomas Foolery' Business Insider, December 24, 2022^
- The Boring Company