The Boring Company (TBC) is an American infrastructure and tunnel construction company founded by Elon Musk in January 2017. Originally a subsidiary of SpaceX, it became a separate corporation in 2018. TBC aims to reduce tunneling costs and increase speed to make tunnel networks financially viable.Key aspects of The Boring Company:
- History: Founded in 2017 by Elon Musk due to his frustration with Los Angeles traffic, TBC was initially a subsidiary of SpaceX before being spun off as a separate entity.
- Leadership: Steve Davis is the CEO and President of TBC.
- Funding: TBC has received funding from Elon Musk, sales of promotional merchandise like "Not-a-Flamethrowers", venture capital firms, and additional Series C funding rounds.
- Machines: TBC initially used conventional tunnel boring machines (TBMs) before designing its own line of machines called Prufrock. The Prufrock machines are designed to improve tunneling speed and efficiency.
- Innovations: TBC is working to improve the tunnel boring process to reduce costs, accelerate completion, improve safety and reduce site impact. Innovations include:
- Projects:
- Inactive and Cancelled Projects: Several projects in cities across the United States and Australia were announced but later became inactive or were cancelled.
- Criticism: TBC has faced criticism from civil engineering experts and tunneling industry veterans who question whether TBC can render tunnels faster and cheaper than competitors. The tunnels have also been criticised for lacking safety features and being inefficient compared to public transit.
- Safety Violations: Nevada OSHA fined TBC $112,000 for safety violations at its Las Vegas tunnel worksite.
- Not-a-Boring Competition: TBC has held student tunnel-boring competitions to encourage innovation in tunneling technology.
