Tesla/Space X/Boring Co./Neuralink

[The ATX]

I'm sure there is meme for being correct on the internet.

[Tyrone Shoes]

Originally Posted by freerover

Oh no one wants to mock me and make fun of how dumb I am when you're hearing what I've been saying all along from Boring themselves now?

[MBAus]

Originally Posted by freerover

So it turns out TxDot asked Boring company about tunneling managed lanes for 35. BC said they couldn't make tunnels big enough.

To be fair, TBC isn't in the market to bid on general purpose highway tunnel projects. Their strategy is smaller diameter tunnels for electric, (eventually) autonomous vehicles that are narrower than would be required for an I-35 scale job. The "electric" part matters because the ventilation requirements for electric vehicles are much less than a tunnel full of carbon monoxide emitting vehicles. Autonomy matters because the tunnels are so narrow that you'd need to be a professional driver to drive them manually (what they are doing in Las Vegas currently).

It's possible they could be in the running to dig the tunnels for the Orange/Blue lines downtown depending on the diameter requirements for those projects. They've also expressed interest in digging utility tunnels. There's also nothing keeping them from doing a public/private partnership with TXDOT to build a privately funded "loop" below the state-owned right of way. They definitely seem interested in doing something around here and I bet the state would be happy to play along.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by MBAus

To be fair, TBC isn't in the market to bid on general purpose highway tunnel projects. Their strategy is smaller diameter tunnels for electric, (eventually) autonomous vehicles that are narrower than would be required for an I-35 scale job. The "electric" part matters because the ventilation requirements for electric vehicles are much less than a tunnel full of carbon monoxide emitting vehicles. Autonomy matters because the tunnels are so narrow that you'd need to be a professional driver to drive them manually (what they are doing in Las Vegas currently).

It's possible they could be in the running to dig the tunnels for the Orange/Blue lines downtown depending on the diameter requirements for those projects. They've also expressed interest in digging utility tunnels. There's also nothing keeping them from doing a public/private partnership with TXDOT to build a privately funded "loop" below the state-owned right of way. They definitely seem interested in doing something around here and I bet the state would be happy to play along.

Each tunnel would have only had 2 lanes of cars. We're not talking about the big dig here. The point was and is that Boring is in the business of building 14' tunnels. They aren't going to change that just to bid on some random project.

[ATX2030]

TBC was founded in '17 and has been around a whopping 4 years. It's a hobby for Musk. Some people like collecting toothbrushes or baseball cards while Musk likes digging tunnels in the dirt. It's pretty low on his priorities at the moment with Tesla and SpaceX consuming most of his time. What TBC has accomplished in 4 years would take 5x as long if not for Musk. Love him or hate him, he does get things done.

[dilliam]

Its key to mention that the tech that has been developed on their boring machines could very easily be used to build a larger diameter machine as well. I'm personally a big proponent of public transport and am not a big fan of the janky loop they built in LV, but I still think what TBC is working on could be really *groundbreaking* even if only for the advancements in boring tech.

[ATX2030]

Here's a recent vid of the progress of TBC Bastrop R&D facility. It starts at 13:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR3oLzeOY3M

[freerover]

Normal Person: "That's not something boring can and would do"
Musk Bros; "Of course he could do that. You don't know anything about tunneling"
Normal Person: "Here is an example of boring company saying they can't do that"
Musk Bros: What do you expect the company is only 4 years old! You think anyone can do what they have done?


That's what some of you sound like. Just chill out. Musk isn't god.

[ATX2030]

Originally Posted by freerover

Normal Person: "That's not something boring can and would do"
Musk Bros; "Of course he could do that. You don't know anything about tunneling"
Normal Person: "Here is an example of boring company saying they can't do that"
Musk Bros: What do you expect the company is only 4 years old! You think anyone can do what they have done?


That's what some of you sound like. Just chill out. Musk isn't god.

Too funny.....only 4 years! It takes the COA, TXDOT and any other governmental bureaucratic entity longer than that to decide if they are going to decide whether or not they are going to decide to decide or not. Please. Better get used to Musk cause he's here to stay. You need to quit bringing Musk up because you sound like an envious, vindictive, petulant person when you do. We get it you hate the guy.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by freerover

Normal Person: "That's not something boring can and would do"
Musk Bros; "Of course he could do that. You don't know anything about tunneling"
Normal Person: "Here is an example of boring company saying they can't do that"
Musk Bros: What do you expect the company is only 4 years old! You think anyone can do what they have done?


That's what some of you sound like. Just chill out. Musk isn't god.

so true.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by ATX2030

Too funny.....only 4 years! It takes the COA, TXDOT and any other governmental bureaucratic entity longer than that to decide if they are going to decide whether or not they are going to decide to decide or not.

And as soon as TBC tries to build anything real, they'll be going through the exact same process.

All that extra bureaucracy takes time, but that step isn't going away from public projects or whenever public money is going to be spent.

In the hypothetical case (probably not happening) that the TBC builds a transit tunnel, it doesn't magically mean that public outreach, NEPA, etc. doesn't happen.

They can only possibly shorten the construction time. Which is also relatively quick from any other contractor.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by dilliam

Its key to mention that the tech that has been developed on their boring machines could very easily be used to build a larger diameter machine as well. I'm personally a big proponent of public transport and am not a big fan of the janky loop they built in LV, but I still think what TBC is working on could be really *groundbreaking* even if only for the advancements in boring tech.

What tech?

AFAIK their only "advancement" is going faster by building smaller tunnels and failing to build basic safety features in their tunnels.

Nothing that any other builder couldn't do (but wisely choose not to).

[atxsnail]

Originally Posted by Novacek

What tech?

AFAIK their only "advancement" is going faster by building smaller tunnels and failing to build basic safety features in their tunnels.

Nothing that any other builder couldn't do (but wisely choose not to).

I feel like their best bet for any meanginful impact is to spend a bunch of R&D dollars going much smaller and making micro-format boring machines for non-human sized stuff like utilities.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by ATX2030

Too funny.....only 4 years! It takes the COA, TXDOT and any other governmental bureaucratic entity longer than that to decide if they are going to decide whether or not they are going to decide to decide or not. Please. Better get used to Musk cause he's here to stay. You need to quit bringing Musk up because you sound like an envious, vindictive, petulant person when you do. We get it you hate the guy.

Saying Elon Musk is not god is not saying that I hate him. It's extremely worrisome that is the connection you made. You need serious psychiatric help. You're in a cult. Please seek help.

[deerhoof]

This week could be the week of an official announcement that Tesla is moving their Global Headquarters to Austin from California. A couple of hints are that the annual shareholder meeting was initially announced to be held in California and then was subsequently moved to Austin. That was announced in a press release on September 24th: https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/t...g-stockholders

This annual meeting will be held on Thursday, October 7th. I think the announcement could come at that meeting.

Maybe a more telling sign is their quarterly announcement of vehicles delivery numbers has always listed Palo Alto, but the press release from today listed Austin instead: https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/t...ion-deliveries

All PR's have historically listed Palo Alto. The last two have listed Austin.

Prior quarter with Palo Alto listed: https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/t...ion-deliveries

[The ATX]

From Bloomberg:

New plants are close to completion in Austin, Texas and Berlin. For the first time, Tesla’s dateline for the production and delivery release said “Austin,” and Tesla will hold its annual shareholder meeting from the Austin factory on Thursday. Martin Viecha, Tesla’s head of investor relations, did not respond when asked if Tesla has moved its corporate headquarters to Austin.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ping-estimates

Way back at post #272 I hinted about something I heard from someone I know who met with Elon Musk. I'll go ahead and say it now, the meeting concerned Tesla's semiconductor supply chain. Tesla's plans for Austin would eventually include 25K employees, but it wasn't clear if that included an HQ move.

[Lobotomizer]

It will be huge if true. Austin has had a good economy for a long time, but HQs for massive companies was always lacking. Adding Oracle, and now possibly Tesla to the mix would really strengthen Austin's image as an important center of business.

[ahealy]

Just think of the tower they could build for HQ.... I just see a tall sharp ass point

[davidberko]

Originally Posted by ahealy

Just think of the tower they could build for HQ.... I just see a tall sharp ass point

Build something like the Chicago spire which never came to fruition over there

[Lobotomizer]

It would be great if they announced the move here, and that they had leased the entire Republic Tower for the HQ with construction starting immediately.