Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Elon Musk announce a new 16-passenger transit system on June 14, 2018 in Chicago. It never happened. Photo: Joshua Lott (Getty Images)
Elon Musk’s “bulk” transportation company, known as The Boring Company, has been valued at $5.675 billion, according to a company press release. Yes, that’s a billion with a “B”. And who says Silicon Valley’s hype machine is dead?
The valuation comes after The Boring Company raised $675 million in a Series C funding round with help from Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, despite the gap between what The Boring Company promised and what it ultimately builds .
The company was founded by Elon Musk with a dream of digging tunnels that could help move large crowds quickly to their underground destinations. This was to be achieved through the Hyperloop high-speed transport system and the slower, but still revolutionary, Loop system. Musk nailed the dig part, but as with all other features, The Boring Company has become little more than a punchline.
When Musk first announced his plans for the Loop system in 2018, it would carry 16-passenger electric vehicles at speeds of 155 miles per hour. The vehicles would, of course, be autonomous and utilize brand new “skate” technology that Musk never fully explained.
The revolutionary vehicles should significantly reduce commuting. In Chicago, to cite just one example, Musk promised that people would get to O’Hare Airport from downtown in about 12 minutes, compared to the existing trains, which took 40 to 45 minutes.
But the Chicago project fell apart and the only real project The Boring Company has built so far has been the Las Vegas Loop, which is nowhere near what Musk promised. Only normal Tesla cars drive in the tunnels and they are even driven by human drivers. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the loop’s top speed is only 35 miles per hour. And who knows where that whole “skating” idea went. The cars just drive on the normal road like everything else.
It looks like The Boring Company even deleted the old Loop 16 car animated video from Vimeo. Luckily we still have a GIF of that promised future – a better future – which you can see below.
Gif: Vimeo / The Boring Company
Compare that to the reality in Vegas, where a regular Tesla is being driven by a human in a tunnel. Driving slowly and wobbly at that.
A rather bumpy ride in Elon Musk’s “Loop” transportation system beneath Las Vegas, Nevada as seen on July 2, 2021.
Gif: Best YouTube/Vegas Ideas
The Boring Company defines its three goals as solving traffic, beautifying cities, and enabling rapid transportation from point to point – very worthy goals indeed. The only problem is that it doesn’t look like The Boring Company is building anything that could actually help humanity in any meaningful way beyond what’s already available.
“To solve the problem of soul-crushing traffic, roads need to be rendered in 3D. Tunnels minimize the use of valuable surface land and do not conflict with existing transportation systems. A large network of tunnels can relieve congestion in any city,” the company claims in its press release, announcing the value of $5.6 billion.
Except that the Boring Company didn’t really solve the traffic. Or anything, really. As long as the loop system uses Teslas powered by humans driving slowly in a tunnel, it will never be what Musk promised. But that hasn’t stopped other cities from getting Musk to build them an underground tunnel.
Good luck Musk. You really know how to sell an idea. But the resulting product leaves much to be desired.