The world’s richest person is the CEO of several companies and also sits on the board of directors of others. Here’s a look at what’s going on with The Boring Company, a company founded by Elon Musk in 2016.
What Happened: Musk, who serves as the CEO of Tesla Inc TSLA and SpaceX, posted a video on Twitter highlighting a milestone for The Boring Company.
Prufrock II emerging from the ground pic.twitter.com/csamCrmAZa
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2022
The video shows the test of Prufrock II digging through the ground. The video shows Musk celebrating with family and friends.
Musk said the tunnel boring machine (TBM) tunneled from one property to another to test Prufrock II.
The TBM, which is designed to tunnel at a speed of one mile per week, has been in Texas for more than a year. The Boring Company previously shared a picture of Prufrock II going into the ground in Texas in April 2022.
Related Link: Why Did Musk’s ‘Boring Company’ Apply For A Private Access Tunnel Under Tesla Gigafactory Texas?
Why It’s Important: The Boring Company has a mission of helping ease traffic concerns with loops and hyperloops.
“Our goal is to solve traffic, which plagues every major city on earth,” Musk said in April 2022 about The Boring Company.
The company currently operates a tunnel system in Las Vegas, Nevada, that primarily uses Tesla vehicles. Customers can pay for the underground rides with various options, including Dogecoin DOGE/USD.
The Boring Company plans to increase its capacity and destinations in its Las Vegas operations. The company also plans to add more tunnels throughout the country.
One issue is scaling, something that Musk admitted the company is still not at. Musk has a goal of beating “Gary the Snail,” named after the SpongeBob SquarePants character. The snail taunts The Boring Company with his speed, Musk previously said. The goal is to get the tunnel boring machines to move faster than a snail, which can help reduce costs and create tunnels at scale.
While the Prufrock II is faster than the company’s previous tunnel miner, the capacity of one mile per week is still below the fictional “Gary the Snail.”
Musk said that The Boring Company could beat Gary the Snail in 2024.
“In the short term, if each Prufrock-2 mines at 1 mile/week and TBC produces 1 new Prufrock machine per month, then TBC will be introducing 600 miles/year of capacity,” The Boring Company said in April 2022.
The Boring Company raised $675 million earlier this year in a funding round valuing the company at $5.67 billion. The funding was said to help bring in new employees and help scale operations.
The funding could also help the company develop Prufrock III, which the company said could have a goal of seven miles per day.
Photo: Prufrock courtesy The Boring Company
