Boring Company

[Gigapress]

Full scale Hyperloop testing later this year.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1518615207035039745

So exciting that it’s happen this fast!

Last October during the Clark County Planning Commission hearing for Vegas Loop approval, Boring Co CEO Steve Davis mentioned ambitions to have Vegas as the first node in a soon-to-be national Loop network. In what seemed to me to be a telling slip of the tongue, he initially said "international". He also said that eventually the plan is still to allow connectivity between Loop and Hyperloop.

Shortly thereafter, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill also said that Hyperloop is still in the long term plans. 12:00 in linked video.

Reporter: “What does this project mean for the Hyperloop project that we’ve heard about?”

Steve Hill: “Well, they’re obviously somewhat related in that both the Hyperloop and the Loop are concepts that Elon Musk created, invented, and has set loose, and we have in North Las Vegas, as you know, a Hyperloop test track, and obviously we are the home now of the first Boring Company major—well, two major projects—in the world. They’re different. They are designed in a way that ultimately they could tie together. The Hyperloop project is in a tube that is the same size as the tunnels in these [gesturing towards Loop tunnel] projects, so these tunnels could connect to that tube for the Hyperloop and transition in some way. But the Hyperloop is an air-evacuated tube that takes air out of that tube to reduce the friction in that tube. It is actually a maglev system, so it is a floating pod that it projected through that tube with a linear electric motor, so it’s a completely different operating structure, but they do have the same diameter, or can have the same diameter tunnel system or tube system. So you could at some point connect these things together. The Hyperloop will travel at 600 mph. I haven’t been—I’ve been pretty fast in one of these Teslas but not that fast yet.”

Clark County Planning Commission on 2021-10-19 7:00 PM

Live and Recorded Public meetings of Clark County Planning Commission on 2021-10-19 7:00 PM for County of Clark

clark.granicus.com

 

[Sancho]

I’m not as excited about the hyperloop as I am urban tunnels.

I do expect the hyperloop to be very lucrative as it becomes the best transport alternative for 100-1000 mile trips. But shaving an hour and $100 bucks off those trips is not particularly earth shattering.

Urban tunnels are civilization changing. They would enable even more density while potentially eliminating cars from the surface, both driving and parking, creating beautiful pedestrianized areas.

More importantly it would seamlessly connect a 50-mile exurban radius that would enable people to live, work and play anywhere in that radius without any traffic snarls. That is truly transformative, and doesn’t require maglev. Just sufficient tunnels and conventional cars (and better still, robotaxis traveling over 100 miles per hour safely while you read your emails.)

 

[mongo]

I’m not as excited about the hyperloop as I am urban tunnels.

I do expect the hyperloop to be very lucrative as it becomes the best transport alternative for 100-1000 mile trips. But shaving an hour and $100 bucks off those trips is not particularly earth shattering.

Urban tunnels are civilization changing. They would enable even more density while potentially eliminating cars from the surface, both driving and parking, creating beautiful pedestrianized areas.

More importantly it would seamlessly connect a 50-mile exurban radius that would enable people to live, work and play anywhere in that radius without any traffic snarls. That is truly transformative, and doesn’t require maglev. Just sufficient tunnels and conventional cars (and better still, robotaxis traveling over 100 miles per hour safely while you read your emails.)

Time savings may be better than you think.
Esp on commuting corridors (NYC to Baltimore) (Detroit to Chicago)
Current air travel:
Drive to airport outside city center (an hour early )
Get through security
Board
Taxi
Take off (if weather is good on route)
Fly
Land
Taxi
Deplane
Get luggage
Get rental/ taxi
Drive to city center

Boring:
Loop to Hyperloop terminal
Take next available pod
High speed near direct routing weather agnostic
Loop to city center (if not there already)

Faster, cheaper, more consistent, no burnt fuel.

DTW to LAX at 600 MPH is 3.5 hours vs 5 by plane (flight time). Around $800 for a non-Spirit round trip.

 

[Gigapress]

Time savings may be better than you think.
Esp on commuting corridors (NYC to Baltimore) (Detroit to Chicago)
Current air travel:
Drive to airport outside city center (an hour early )
Get through security
Board
Taxi
Take off (if weather is good on route)
Fly
Land
Taxi
Deplane
Get luggage
Get rental/ taxi
Drive to city center

Boring:
Loop to Hyperloop terminal
Take next available pod
High speed near direct routing weather agnostic
Loop to city center (if not there already)

Faster, cheaper, more consistent, no burnt fuel.

DTW to LAX at 600 MPH is 3.5 hours vs 5 by plane (flight time). Around $800 for a non-Spirit round trip.

Some form of Hyperloop could also be used for freight, and for distances much longer than 1000 miles.

I’m think someday we’ll even have transoceanic tunnels.

Big container ships have a bunch of problems:

• Fueled by bunker oil (the lowest & most polluting grade of oil fuel)
• 25 mph speed, so it takes 2-3 weeks to get cargo across the Pacific Ocean
• Disturbs ocean wildlife, especially whales which are a keystone species in most oceanic ecosystems
• Spreads invasive species via ballast water
• Vulnerable to weather, causing schedule variability and occasional catastrophe including containers falling into ocean or ships sinking
• Vulnerable to hostile regimes cutting off access to critical choke points (e.g. Suez Canal, Panama Canal, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Gibraltar, Bosphorus Strait, Kerch Strait)
• Subject to variable fuel costs
• Requires expensive and ecologically catastrophic dredging at ports
• Requires containers to be stacked and unstacked by cranes

What if TBC can actually construct 7+ miles per day of bidirectional vacuum freight tunnel at like $20 million per mile with nobody in the tunnel?

For instance, imagine a direct route between LA and Hong Kong:

• 7200 miles
• $140B cost
• 17 months to construct if boring from Chinese and American sides simultaneously
• 500 mph
• Powered by cheap renewable electricity
• Containers linked together in one long, never-ending train in each direction
• 15 hours journey
• 30 twenty-foot containers per second continuous max throughput each way if each container is separated by a 5 foot gap at 500 mph
  • 33 twenty-ft equivalent units (TEUs) if forty-foot containers used
  • 34 TEUs if sixty-ft containers
• 1 billion TEUs max per year
• If profit per TEU is $1k round trip, up to $1T per year earnings potential

But wait, this is two orders of magnitude more capacity than today’s US-China shipping traffic!! From just one Hyperloop freight tunnel!

So, the price of shipping would plummet even as speed increases like 30x. At this point even shipping almost any kind of fresh fruits and vegetables across the Pacific would start to make sense. Global trade would explode…

 

[mongo]

Some form of Hyperloop could also be used for freight, and for distances much longer than 1000 miles.

I’m think someday we’ll even have transoceanic tunnels.

Big container ships have a bunch of problems:

• Fueled by bunker oil (the lowest & most polluting grade of oil fuel)
• 25 mph speed, so it takes 2-3 weeks to get cargo across the Pacific Ocean
• Disturbs ocean wildlife, especially whales which are a keystone species in most oceanic ecosystems
• Spreads invasive species via ballast water
• Vulnerable to weather, causing schedule variability and occasional catastrophe including containers falling into ocean or ships sinking
• Vulnerable to hostile regimes cutting off access to critical choke points (e.g. Suez Canal, Panama Canal, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Gibraltar, Bosphorus Strait, Kerch Strait)
• Subject to variable fuel costs
• Requires expensive and ecologically catastrophic dredging at ports
• Requires containers to be stacked and unstacked by cranes

What if TBC can actually construct 7+ miles per day of bidirectional vacuum freight tunnel at like $20 million per mile with nobody in the tunnel?

For instance, imagine a direct route between LA and Hong Kong:

• 7200 miles
• $140B cost
• 17 months to construct if boring from Chinese and American sides simultaneously
• 500 mph
• Powered by cheap renewable electricity
• Containers linked together in one long, never-ending train in each direction
• 15 hours journey
• 30 twenty-foot containers per second continuous max throughput each way if each container is separated by a 5 foot gap at 500 mph
  • 33 twenty-ft equivalent units (TEUs) if forty-foot containers used
  • 34 TEUs if sixty-ft containers
• 1 billion TEUs max per year
• If profit per TEU is $1k round trip, up to $1T per year earnings potential

But wait, this is two orders of magnitude more capacity than today’s US-China shipping traffic!! From just one Hyperloop freight tunnel!

So, the price of shipping would plummet even as speed increases like 30x. At this point even shipping almost any kind of fresh fruits and vegetables across the Pacific would start to make sense. Global trade would explode…

Tunnels through fault lines/ ring of fire might be an issue along with access in emergencies and ground pressure. Plus mucking out the tunnel...
If countries all got along, could cut across the Bering Strait.

 

[Ogre]

Time savings may be better than you think.
Esp on commuting corridors (NYC to Baltimore) (Detroit to Chicago)
Current air travel:
Drive to airport outside city center (an hour early )
Get through security
Board
Taxi
Take off (if weather is good on route)
Fly
Land
Taxi
Deplane
Get luggage
Get rental/ taxi
Drive to city center

Boring:
Loop to Hyperloop terminal
Take next available pod
High speed near direct routing weather agnostic
Loop to city center (if not there already)

Faster, cheaper, more consistent, no burnt fuel.

DTW to LAX at 600 MPH is 3.5 hours vs 5 by plane (flight time). Around $800 for a non-Spirit round trip.

This is exactly what I was going to say. Since passenger load is light and there is no flexibility in routing, there is no incentive to hijack them.

The overhead you have to deal with to take a flight is significant. Also, hyper loop pods can be smaller and more frequent. Instead of cramming 300 people into a tube, you put 20-30 people in each pod and have 10x as many trips. So you could have pods going from SF to LA every 15 minutes. Pods from Portland to SF every half hour. No buying tickets days in advance, you could buy your tickets on your phone on the drive over (or in the terminal).

I'm just wondering if you can get a car inside of a Hyperloop pod. Having my car packed with my luggage and bike would be fantastic. Flying with bikes is just so much hassle I often end up driving. Also dealing with not having a car at the far end is a huge pain.

 

[mongo]

I'm just wondering if you can get a car inside of a Hyperloop pod. Having my car packed with my luggage and bike would be fantastic. Flying with bikes is just so much hassle I often end up driving. Also dealing with not having a car at the far end is a huge pain.

Seems technically feasible given the extra space a Tesla has in the Loop.

 

[Sancho]

No question that the hyperloop has the potential, from a financial perspective, to be another Musk breakout hit.

But beyond the financial implications, I’m captivated by how tunnels could profoundly change the we live our lives.

 

[Gigapress]

Tunnels through fault lines/ ring of fire might be an issue along with access in emergencies and ground pressure. Plus mucking out the tunnel...
If countries all got along, could cut across the Bering Strait.

A Hyperloop between US and China would definitely follow the coastline at least for the majority of the journey because conveniently that’s a straight line and that where all the big cities are anyway.

I think for other seas and oceans it’d be possible to ramp out of the seabed and have the tube just in the water and have it bridge over fault lines if that’s needed. This would be conceptually similar to the underwater sections of the Chesapeake bay tunnel except with massively higher water pressure.

Expensive idea, but not physically impossible and so with extreme ambition, technical competence and capital it might be doable. The value if successful is so crazy high I wouldn’t put it past them. This company is owned by the same person who’s pushing for intercontinental rocket launches as a means of public mass transit…