Blog Tesla Wants The Boring Company to Dig Tunnels Between Factories

Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to find ways for his companies to work together. The latest is a plan to use The Boring Company to dig tunnels for transporting Tesla parts and vehicles between facilities.

On Tesla’s earnings call, Musk gave an example of the problem he hopes to solve:

“We are looking at building tunnels, using The Boring Company’s thing, because we have, for example, our seats production is at a separate building on Page. And we have a bunch of trucks moving seats back and forth between both the primary Fremont production and the seat factory.

And we actually get constrained on how many trucks can we dock and undock at the seat factory, which is only, I don’t know, half a mile or a mile away from the vehicle plant. So it’ll be pretty easy to just have a tunnel, do an automated conveyance from seats to the factory,” Musk said.

Tesla would be looking to build a tunnel between its 901 Page Ave. seat factory in Fremont to the main Tesla Factory roughly 3 miles away by car at 45500 Fremont Blvd.

CTO JB Straubel said on the call that streamlining this part of the manufacturing process is important as the company begins to deploy high-density and high-velocity lines. When Model 3 production reaches the pace Tesla has planned, production would be dependent on the efficiency of trucks going to and from each factory.

 

[SOULPEDL]

Or build a more efficient automated truck docking load/unload "conveyor" system and then sell those to every warehouse across the country... with their Semi. Create a truck carrier and move them in and out with amazing maneuverability and speed, then work on the guts to move the entire contents in/out on rails. Drivers would enter your lot and the carriers would take it all from there. And lease yourself a few hundred Semi's while you're at it.

More than one way
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[Economite]

Private tunnels under (or across) public streets are a big issue. Once one is built, it tends to block the construction of further tunnels in the same area unless the tunnel depth keeps getting deeper and deeper (since tunnels at the same depth can't cross each other.

Thus, it's important that tunnels be a public utility (ie some sort of generally available and planned system, with regulated rates), not things that are haphazardly created by random companies to serve some specific proprietary interest (ie connecting two specific buildings owned by a single company). Even where things are reasonably well regulated (and limited to public utilities/public services), the space reasonably close to the surface can fill up with just a few tunnels. Just look at how deep the NYC MTA is having to dig some of its new tunnels (7-line extension; LIRR East Side Access; 2nd ave subway).

 

[Rowan256]

I hope Elon will once come to "Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer" (Flower Auction Aalsmeer), there they once considered to create a tunnel between themself and Schiphol, but in the end didn't do it because they they thought it would be too expensive, this was around 1995 or so ( Bloemenbuis tussen Schiphol en Aalsmeer geen sprookje | TROUW *Please pay attention that this article is written in 1997, they never heard of autopilot, Tesla, the Euro, or anything like that). On top of that, they also got a massive pile of trucks in the area and if that isn't enough, they also got an absolutely massive roof that could be filled with solar panels. On top of all of this, also all the compagnies nearby got loads of trucks and massive roofs and name it.
Google Maps


Aalsmeer could really become Elons playground.

 

[YoungStranger]

Is the Boring Company ready to compete for contracts elsewhere apart from Musks companies? I am sure that Elon has bigger plans in mind apart from hats, flamethrowers, underground skates and his under the mountain Bond Villains lair!

 

[Uncle Paul]

Would most likely need one small diameter tunnel. Could run freight both ways, but not at the same time.

Secure, efficient, fast, weatherproof, little manpower, non polluting, clean.

 

[pdq]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to find ways for his companies to work together. The latest is a plan to use The Boring Company to dig tunnels for transporting Tesla parts and vehicles between facilities. On Tesla’s earnings call, Musk gave an example of the problem he hopes to solve: “We are looking at building...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2018/02/09/tesla-wants-the-boring-company-to-dig-tunnels-between-factories/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

How many of your brain dead mother ****ers are believing this? He's going to spend billions of dollars of money the company doesn't have to transfer parts ** a grand total of ** 3 miles away by boring an underground tunnel under Fremont CA, versus running some delivery trucks back and forth a few times a day.

This is another smoke screen to keep people, prospective client and most importantly Wall Street from realizing how horrible shape the company is in. The goal of 5,000 cars of Model 3's has been pushed back from December 2017 to June of 2018. What does that tell you?

I own a Tesla Model S so I hope the company doesn't go belly up, but stop drinking the Kool-Aid and look at the financials they report to the SEC. That's reality versus Kool-Aid.

Rediculous.

 

[Stuart21]

I hope Elon will once come to "Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer" (Flower Auction Aalsmeer), there they once considered to create a tunnel between themself and Schiphol, but in the end didn't do it because they they thought it would be too expensive, this was around 1995 or so.

As a general rule underground rail costs 3 times the cost of elevated which costs 3 times surface.
Benefits would need to be a biggie - but interested to see what Elonomics makes of costs.

 

[Bluewish]

How many of your brain dead mother ****ers are believing this? He's going to spend billions of dollars of money the company doesn't have to transfer parts ** a grand total of ** 3 miles away by boring an underground tunnel under Fremont CA, versus running some delivery trucks back and forth a few times a day.

This is another smoke screen to keep people, prospective client and most importantly Wall Street from realizing how horrible shape the company is in. The goal of 5,000 cars of Model 3's has been pushed back from December 2017 to June of 2018. What does that tell you?

I own a Tesla Model S so I hope the company doesn't go belly up, but stop drinking the Kool-Aid and look at the financials they report to the SEC. That's reality versus Kool-Aid.

Rediculous.

You don't get the point. The only reason behind that tunnelling idea was production of tesla is now depending on trucking parts to the factory. It may be the reason that the goal of M3 has been pushed back, so they need to come up with a plan to moving parts faster. No comment on how ridiculous vs practical this idea will be but Tesla needs to do something (may be automate truck docking/loading is cheaper, easier and more realistic).

 

[pdq]

Bluewish:

I do get the point. Do you have any idea how incredibly expensive it's going to be to build a 3 mile underground tunnel, especially in an area subject to earthquakes? What happens if the tunnel collapses and a couple of blocks of downtown Fremont are destroyed. Can you imagine the lawsuits that will arise? And how is he going to move the parts in that tunnel? By truck.

People have to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and look at this in practical terms. And, tell me again where the money for this mega project is going to come from, just so his delivery trucks don't have to drive in traffic above ground? As in many things in life, just because it's technically possible to do something doesn't mean it a smart idea. Elon is simply being a promoter to take people's focus off the fundamentals at Tesla.

I do agree with your statement that Tesla needs to something about ramping up the production of Model 3s. Critically important.

Putting a red roadster into space isn't the answer.

 

[NerdUno]

If you're building tunnels below your own property, that's one thing. Disney has been doing that for years. But, if you're tunneling below someone else's property, I personally have real problems with that unless it's for a public purpose and the tunnel is owned by the public. Just because it's hidden below ground, it's still encroaching on the future rights of others and the public. I'd have less difficulty with this if Elon wants to build them on Mars.

 

[BerTX]

I imagine the tunnel between Fremont and Reno will be popular on weekends.

 

[claudelaval]

Private tunnels under (or across) public streets are a big issue. Once one is built, it tends to block the construction of further tunnels in the same area unless the tunnel depth keeps getting deeper and deeper (since tunnels at the same depth can't cross each other.

Thus, it's important that tunnels be a public utility (ie some sort of generally available and planned system, with regulated rates), not things that are haphazardly created by random companies to serve some specific proprietary interest (ie connecting two specific buildings owned by a single company). Even where things are reasonably well regulated (and limited to public utilities/public services), the space reasonably close to the surface can fill up with just a few tunnels. Just look at how deep the NYC MTA is having to dig some of its new tunnels (7-line extension; LIRR East Side Access; 2nd ave subway).

With paying very high taxes comes helping companies...