Elon Musk's Boring Company Delivers $600 Flamethrower (theverge.com)

Last December, Boring Company CEO Elon Musk promised to sell a Boring Company-branded flamethrower after selling 50,000 Boring Company hats. Well, sure enough, 50,000 hats were sold and Musk is delivering on his promise. The Verge reports: Mark this down as one of the promises Elon delivers on, apparently, because it looks like the Boring Company flamethrower is here. Redditors in a few SpaceX, Boring Company, and Musk-related subreddits noticed earlier this week that the URL "boringcompany.com/flamethrower" started redirecting to a page with a password box. And at least one user was able to guess the original password, too: "flame." (It's since been changed.) Behind that password was a shop page that looks just like the one for The Boring Company's hat. But instead of a $20 cap, they found a preorder prompt for a $600 flamethrower. "Prototype pictured above," the listing reads. "Final production flamethrower will be better."

Comments

Re:Hat

[Sarten-X]

I expect he'll ultimately be remembered for taking generally-dismissed technologies, building PR campaigns styled after P.T. Barnum, and creating reasonably-successful companies using excitement to offset the extremely-high risk that led to the technologies being rejected the first time around.

Musk's PR stunts are exactly that. There is little scientific value (besides a dead-weight test) in launching a car into orbit... but by doing so, he can inspire another round of news stories and keep his name in front of the upcoming generation of engineers. Similarly, of course he's going to sell branded flamethrowers, because every reckless idiot (myself included) is going to think "Gee, I could probably spare $600 for that" and start clearing space in the living room next to the life-size Boba Fett statue. It'll be a great conversation piece, and a piece of history if/when the tunnels become successful.

I'm not going to opine on whether showmanship is a good or bad thing for investment purposes, but I am happy to see the public eye turning toward the real challenges to progress. Yes, the rockets blow up, the permits are a hassle, and building new manufacturing factories requires obscene amounts of money... but those problems are not insurmountable, with enough persistence (and funding). Don't worry about how hard your math homework seems, little Timmy... just give it another try, like your hero Elon Musk!

For Elon Haters

[mentil]

'Flamebait' has a whole new meaning now.