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Next Big Thing From Elon Musk? It Could Be 'Boring' (usatoday.com)
A string of tweets put out by serial tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Saturday hints that his entrepreneurial future may be a little "boring." USA Today reports: The Tesla and SpaceX founder got on Twitter on Saturday morning to rant about an issue he seems to find irksome -- traffic. Musk has also been working on resolving his frustration with traffic issues through above-ground means with his Hyperloop venture, which proposes a plan for mass-transit pods moving through above-ground tubes. But that doesn't appear to be enough, commenting: "Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging..." He even offered up a name for the venture, calling it "The Boring Company," and began branding it with a slogan: "Boring, it's what we do." Then capped it off by tweeting, "I am actually going to do this."
Or both.....
Poor guy. What he really needs is a helicopter.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Otherwise he'll get run into massive amounts of cost and delays due to existing underground infrastructure - of which some old elements may not be marked accurately (or even at all) on any map.
I can only guess that he feels he has some alternative design for a tunnel boring machine that could be cheaper than today's designs and more tolerant to problematic geology. A thought that may or may not be accurate.
"... even though he sins so much that people cast him out of demons."
They're called Metro systems. There's even one in LA though he may not know that since he probably hasn't been on public transport since he was in his mothers womb. Amazingly they travel through tunnels underground and bypass road traffic! Who knew?
Has he by any chance purchased an island with an active volcano? Seems like he has all the tools for an underground lair that launches rockets.
Isn't running:
- A car design and manufacturing company
- A rocket launcher and capsule design and manufacturing company
- A lithium batter design and manufacturing company
- Managing a very high speed mass transportation concept
enough for one person?
It's not like Tesla cars are perfect or that SpaceX launcher's aren't blowing up on the pad and I don't think battery one has come out of SolarCity yet.
Mr. Musk has come up with some great ideas, but I think he needs to keep his (business) interests limited to ensure that they are all successful and outstanding products.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I personally have thought up half a dozen cheap ways to give drivers who are approaching traffic lights enough information that they don't have to hit it red and stop --- things that work like the countdowns provided by pedestrian walk lights. And it doesn't have to be mandatory. If maybe 30% of drivers use the inforrmation to coast through, then the other 70% will have no choice. A lot of gas could probably be saved.
This sort of thing has probably been patented many times but I've never see any mention of it anywhere. Take it and run, Elon.
Your $90K car not being able to move through your $1M/mi highways at a speed that will not make you frowny. As much as I still think Bill Gates might be the Bob Dylan of tech (talent factor roughly equivalent to right place/right time factor) I think Bill has done the right thing with Being A Wealthy Person in giving money to projects that will solve the "we're dying here" problems. There's the old bit about Bill Gates makes so much money that it would be a net loss for him to stop and pick up a $100 bill. Musk seems to think that such time-saving for productive people is an actual plan to make money and that the majority cares about such kewl solutions. Also, people who think that everyone would rather spend time in a driverless car or a tube pod rather than with their hands on the wheel and their foot on the accelerator are mis-judging up to a third of the travel population.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
He can't. Not of the US anyway, not without a Constitutional Amendment. He's African-American. ;-)
He's doing fine right where he is, anyway.
-- Alastair
Regardless of how deep, it will also have to be fast. I believe current borers (correct term?) drill at the rate of 1-2 metres per day.
According to Crossrail, the largest distance tunnelled by one of their boring machines in a single day was "72 metres by Ellie on 16 April 2014 between Pudding Mill Lane and Stepney Green". So 1-2 metres seems to be out by quite a bit.
He's a traitor! He wants to end reliance on fossil fuels. In Tumpmerica, he will be arrested, charged with crimes against coal, and thrown in prison!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Southern California isn't the best place for a subway. There are currently only two underground subway lines, and they came in vastly over budget - the Metro Red line's original cost estimate was $400 million; it was completed for $4.5 billion. It held the record for the most expensive civic construction project until Boston's Big Dig.
The reason is that SoCal is full of oil. If you visit, you'll see functioning oil pumps scattered around in random places. It bubbles out of the ground naturally in the La Brea Tar Pits, and into the surrounding ocean as underwater oil seeps. When they dug the first tunnels for the Red line, the workers returned the next day to find oil and tar seeping in through the walls of the freshly-dug tunnel. They had to stop construction until they could come up with new ways to hold back the seepage and insure it wouldn't become a problem in the future decades of subway operation. (The Big Dig was expensive because of similar problems, except with seawater seepage.)
Oh yeah, the earthquakes tend to be a problem too. Especially if your tunnel crosses over a fault line.
I've long thought that ultimately roads should be underground. I would absolutely love to live in a subdivision with underground roads. Think how wonderful it would be to walk outside your house and only have walking and bicycle paths! In the winter, you would never have to worry about icy roads or snow plows, which also means you would have vastly fewer potholes in the roads.
We've already learned to put much of our other infrastructure underground. My neighborhood has all the wires buried. The only reason older neighborhoods still have above ground wires is the cost of burying them.
Cost.
Yup, that's the only problem here. I fear that even if the boring of the tunnel were free, the cost of tunnels would be prohibitive in most situations (you have to build a secure wall and ceiling, and you have to install a ventilation system along with lighting). I suppose if your boring machine had a built-in fusion reactor, it could melt what it bores through and create a nice solid shell and even leave a nice road surface. If you only allow electric cars in the tunnels, you can forego the ventilation system.
I think this is still science fiction for now, but if anyone can figure out how to make it work with technology that can be built today, it's Elon Musk.
...because I kind of thought he might be going off to Georgia to hunt one of those giant boars they show all the time on Youtube. It seems like something rich people would do.