Serial entrepreneur and Mars colonization hopeful Elon Musk founded The Boring Company in 2016. The Electric car manufacturing CEO saw the coming trend of tunnel development as the future and started The Boring Company to get ahead of the trend and help facilitate said future.

Over the years the Boring company has come up with outlandish marketing ploys for publicity and ultimately raised capital for it’s largest scale projects in the pipeline—one of those items being the “Not A Flamethrower” which was discontinued after 20,000 units. The Boring Company is likely to prove a necessary part of the upcoming changes to transportation infrastructure.

Let's take a closer looking at the Boring Company.

What is the Boring Company?

Boring Company People Mover
via The Boring Company

The Boring Company based in Hawthorne, CA, is a drilling and tunneling company. The company uses heavy drill and mining machinery to bore tunnels underground. The main purpose of the company is to bore holes in the earth to connect a network of underground pipelines. This soon-to-be vast network is aiming toward a major much-needed update to modern travel. Compared to the national highway system, cross-country railroads, and planes –The Boring Company hopes to bring a safer, more efficient, and personalized approach to travel.

Whether it's in your own car for shorter distances in the proposed Loop system or in the Hyperloop for larger distances – The Boring Company has a new way of getting from A to B. The proposed network of underground tunnels is something they hope to bring to major cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where traffic can be a nightmare. The proposed tunnel network has many applications that could potentially solve a range of problems associated with the current travel landscape.

RELATED: Elon Musk's The Boring Company Receives $120 Million Outside Investment

The First Live Functional “Loop”

Boring tunnel entrance white
via Electrek

Currently, on boringcompany.com, there is a video showcasing their latest advancement. The video shows two cars on a trip to the same destination (Space X's HQ). The only difference is the way they get there. The two vehicles are Teslas, of course, and affixed to the top of each video feed is a timer. One takes the standard way of driving we know today. This includes taking the streets, driving through stop-and-go traffic, stopping at lights, waiting for pedestrians, and everything else that comes with driving in the city.

The second video feed however, follows an identical Tesla Model 3 as it takes the Boring Company’s latest development, a short underground tunnel connecting two company plants. We follow the Model 3 as it takes the elevator underground, flies through the tunnel with no obstacles, and gets to its destination in record time. At the end of the tunnel, the car is then raised by another elevator to the ground. The car then drives off and parks, awaiting the arrival of the other Model 3 that took the traditional streets.

The time difference is something that is hard to ignore. Especially since this was shot in real-time and the driver of the Model 3 that took the underground Boring Company’s tunnel not only beat the other driver but had time to spare. The first driver to arrive sat on a bench and had lunch and a coffee all before the second Model 3 arrived. Looking at this time-saving tech on a small scale is astounding, and maximizing that effect to cover more cities and larger scale cross country travel will be an interesting feat.

RELATED: Brabus Group's Startech Unveils Aero Kit And Carbon Upgrades For Tesla Model 3

Tunnels so cheap they pay for themselves

The Boring Company Brick
via forum.nasaspaceflight.com

As a boring or digging company, there is one thing you are guaranteed to have an excessive amount of? Dirt. According to Elon, most tunneling companies have trucks remove and replace the dirt/stone in and out of the facility. This translates to about 15% of overall production costs, not very cost-effective. So Musk’s solution is to make that ground-up dirt into sellable bricks that could function in a multitude of applications.

In true Musk fashion the Boring brick is actually better than standard bricks in every way, including cost. Not only is the boring brick sustainably produced, eco-friendly, stronger, and more durable than your standard brick, but it is also a fraction of the price. The cherry on top is that if bricks are needed for affordable housing, The Boring Company is willing to offer them for free.

Not satisfied with the way the first bricks from the process came out, Musk ended up giving away the first batch of 500 bricks to the employees working on them. The value, of course, went for upwards of $200 due to the fact that they are incredibly rare.

This Is What The Boring Company Is Doing?

via YouTube

The Boring Company in 2018 held a press conference revealing an example of what the company is capable of. The press conference was the company's first live demo of the new technology they have been working on. The conference convinced Vegas officials of the advantages, and The Boring Company scored a contract with Vegas. The deal included building a tunnel network connecting the Las Vegas convention center since that is the most highly trafficked area pre-COVID-19. Although things have slowed, the Boring Company is still drilling away. Other contracts in place include building tunnel networks within the state of California.

The Boring Company's Proposed Las Vegas Convention Center Plans
via The Boring Company

Some proposed tunneling strategies include NYC to Washington D.C. and possibly Texas as well. News broke just a few weeks ago of a possible Ontario International Airport tunnel connecting to Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink in California. The four-mile tunnel would connect Metrolink’s busiest line to the nation's fastest-growing airport of the last three years.

More recently, Musk met with Miami officials for a proposed solution to the growing transportation of metro areas. Mayors of both Miami and Ft. Lauderdale initially met with the Boring company in California to witness their advancements first hand. The Boring Company then headed to Florida to evaluate what was possible there. The Florida mayors are both optimistic about the proposed solution and are working with The Boring Company to help bring their city into a new age of transport.

NEXT: A Detailed History Of Tesla And SpaceX