Boring Company

[Gigapress]

Greetings esteemed TMC members! I have been attempting to create the best Boring Company spreadsheet on the internet because I don't see enough people talking about it and because I am, after much analysis, hanging in the Boring Co hyperbull camp and feel compelled to evangelize.

I am soliciting community feedback on this model and I would be honored if any of you can help me make it less wrong.

Boring Company

To Do What does the Wright's law curve for Prufrock manufacturing look like? How long can cutting head last? Frequent replacements? Diamond tipped cutter head? Cooling system. Nitrogen? Liquid to gas? How big of outdoor refrigerator? Heat removal on cutting head Use some waste heat from cutting...

docs.google.com

I did an interview with Warren Redlich about this model back in May, although I have made a lot of changes since then. I will likely return for round 2 on his YouTube channel sometime in October. I apologize for my crappy lighting and microphone.

 

[Chunky Jr.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1489666444245680131

 

[MC3OZ]

I'm just trying to work out what volume of water could be stored in a Boring co tunnel using it as a kind of underground water vault,

Doing calculations in metric for easy conversion to metric..

12 ft = 3.6576 metres - radius = 1.8228 metres
for a 1 metre length - volume = 10,51 sq metres = 10,510 litres
for a 1 km section of tunnel peak water storage = 10,510,000 litres = 10.5 Megalitres

If I have made any obvious maths errors, please point them out.

 

[Chunky Jr.]

I'm just trying to work out what volume of water could be stored in a Boring co tunnel using it as a kind of underground water vault,

Doing calculations in metric for easy conversion to metric..

12 ft = 3.6576 metres - radius = 1.8228 metres
for a 1 metre length - volume = 10,51 sq metres = 10,510 litres
for a 1 km section of tunnel peak water storage = 10,510,000 litres = 10.5 Megalitres

If I have made any obvious maths errors, please point them out.

hmmm, I get something slightly different : 1 meter length, 1.8228 radius. Volume = pi * r^2 * length = 10.44 cubic meters = 10,440 liters

using boring company tunnels as a giant water pipeline is an interesting idea.

 

[MC3OZ]

hmmm, I get something slightly different : 1 meter length, 1.8228 radius. Volume = pi * r^2 * length = 10.44 cubic meters = 10,440 liters

using boring company tunnels as a giant water pipeline is an interesting idea.

Close enough, I'll go with your more conservative numbers.

The overall scheme I have in mind is to harvet storm water in high rsinfsll coastal locations as sn alternative to letting it flow into the sea.

The tunnels themslves store water, but in chosen locations we can dig down to the tunnel depth and create large dams.

I'm using metric for convenience.

Say the tunnels were always 12 metres below sea level regardless of the terrain height.
This is a flat surface so we should not need to pump water to transport it in the tunnel.

To harvest water and serve as junctions we need dams. The way to build dams is dig a giant open cut dam down to the tunnel level, say 100m x 100m x 12m deep,

Digging that deep would probably allow construction of a dam wall using the earth that is perhaps 12m high. Again no pumps are needed to fill the dam sith storm water.

If the dams are well sited local storm water can be feed innvia conventional means.

 

[adiggs]

Close enough, I'll go with your more conservative numbers.

The overall scheme I have in mind is to harvet storm water in high rsinfsll coastal locations as sn alternative to letting it flow into the sea.

The tunnels themslves store water, but in chosen locations we can dig down to the tunnel depth and create large dams.

I'm using metric for convenience.

Say the tunnels were always 12 metres below sea level regardless of the terrain height.
This is a flat surface so we should not need to pump water to transport it in the tunnel.

To harvest water and serve as junctions we need dams. The way to build dams is dig a giant open cut dam down to the tunnel level, say 100m x 100m x 12m deep,

Digging that deep would probably allow construction of a dam wall using the earth that is perhaps 12m high. Again no pumps are needed to fill the dam sith storm water.

If the dams are well sited local storm water can be feed innvia conventional means.

Wouldn't the water in this sort of setup be awfully stagnant? I'm wondering about stuff starting to grow and issues along those lines.

Of course it'll also matter what the water is being captured for.

 

[MC3OZ]

Wouldn't the water in this sort of setup be awfully stagnant? I'm wondering about stuff starting to grow and issues along those lines.

Of course it'll also matter what the water is being captured for.

I'm still thinking it through...

As it is underground it is probably not that different to water from a well, if it is every used for human consumption it is probably pumped into a regular dam and goes through the normal treatment process.

If it is used for watering sports fields, growing crops etc, treatment might not be a big issue...

The flow/refresh rate depends on how often rain falls..

It is also a consideration that any economic solution maximises the usage of the pipes, so buffering water storages exceed the pipe capacity by some margin.

Say for example a buffering dam was 100m x 100m x 12 m (deep) = 120 Megalitres, it depends on the flow rate of the pipe how long it takes for water levels to equalise.

It is also true that some of the areas I'm talking about can get very intense rain events 300 mm or or around 12 inches of rain a day.
The real challenge is economically capturing and moving a large volume of water when needed,.
The same areas can get 6 months of minimal rainfall, wet/dry season.

I'm not sure this is the solution, but water supply is a looming problem in many parts of the world.

 

[MC3OZ]

I'm still thinking it through...

Technically I think this might work, but the economics are very challenging... so a complete no starter, unless the cost of tunnels drops very significantly.

 

[PACEMD]

I don't know if you can dig this but news about a boring company is just not that interesting..........

 

[Chunky Jr.]

The Boring Company just raised a lot of money at a multi-B valuation.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1516948967367581698

 

[Gigapress]

The Boring Company just raised a lot of money at a multi-B valuation.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1516948967367581698

And a couple BIG new updates on Prufrock:

• ZPIT (Zero People in Tunnel): unlike traditional TBMs which require upwards of a dozen or more people to operate, Prufrock is designed to be capable of operating completely remotely and autonomously via computerized systems and requires zero people in the tunnel to operate.

• 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. As a point of reference, less than 20 miles of underground subway tunnel has been constructed in the United States in the last 20 years.

And they’re still talking about getting Prufrock to 7 miles per day for the “medium term goal”, a 49x improvement.

Then 1 Prufrock/month would be ~30k miles/year of added tunneling capacity.

At this rate they’ll have 100k total miles of tunnel by around 2030.

 

[mhan00]

Isn’t their Vegas loop about to come online? If that works as well as they projected that would be a great sign. I know almost nothing about Boring Co, though.

 

[Gigapress]

Vegas Loop is in initial stages of construction. It’ll be 29 miles with stops at every major resort and attraction plus the airport when the first phase is fully completed, which is probably 2 years away.

Vegas Loop — The Boring Company

www.boringcompany.com

 

[mhan00]

Vegas Loop is in initial stages of construction. It’ll be 29 miles with stops at every major resort and attraction plus the airport when the first phase is fully completed, which is probably 2 years away.

Vegas Loop — The Boring Company

www.boringcompany.com

That would be a great proof of concept if it can let people avoid the traffic on the Strip efficiently.

 

[Chunky Jr.]

It's interesting that TBC is also looking to build pedestrian only tunnels

 

[Gigapress]

That would be a great proof of concept if it can let people avoid the traffic on the Strip efficiently.

Yep, and it’ll be the new transportation backbone of a tourist city that attracted 43 million visitors in 2019.

Oh, and Boring volunteered to fund 100% of the construction costs privately with zero taxpayer dollars, and is paying the local government a recurring franchise fee and sales tax for the privilege.

This will go viral once it opens and people find out it’s not a joke but actually awesome. Mark my words.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Yep, and it’ll be the new transportation backbone of a tourist city that attracted 43 million visitors in 2019.

Oh, and Boring volunteered to fund 100% of the construction costs privately with zero taxpayer dollars, and is paying the local government a recurring franchise fee and sales tax for the privilege.

This will go viral once it opens and people find out it’s not a joke but actually awesome. Mark my words.

I agree, but even then I will still have to slog through comments like “this sucks compared to trains”, mark my words

So, anyone know how to wiggle in and invest in Boring?

 

[Sancho]

Boring < $6bil sounds like a steal to me. If FSD works, and robotaxis start proliferating (with the ride cost less than that of public transportation), the business case for more roadways becomes even more compelling. Where are all those roadways going to be built except underground?

 

[Gigapress]

Boring < $6bil sounds like a steal to me. If FSD works, and robotaxis start proliferating (with the ride cost less than that of public transportation), the business case for more roadways becomes even more compelling. Where are all those roadways going to be built except underground?

Moreover, where else could robotaxis safely drive 100+ mph but a tunnel exclusively for robotaxis?

No weather
No roadway debris
No human drivers
No visibility gaps (perfect lighting, 100% camera coverage)
No bumps
No potholes
No falling tree branches
No unexpected large animals

I want to invest so badly. My financial model is linked in the OP of this thread and it's shocking. Easily another trillion dollar Musk company if they can hit the construction costs/speed and autonomy.

 

[mongo]

Full scale Hyperloop testing later this year.

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