[writimov]

Agreed. The cost for underwater tunnels will be much higher - especially initially. Let's say they are 100X higher cost at $100mil/mile - that is still 1/30th the cost of a current tunnel in San Francisco at $3bil/mile. But the Boring Company is already designing for air tight tunnels: 'vacuum-sealed'.

"TBC’s current tunnels are designed and built in preparation for their eventual transition to Hyperloop."

"Hyperloop is an ultra-high-speed underground public transportation system in which passengers are transported at 600+ mph within a vacuum-sealed tunnel. Whereas Loop is used for shorter intra-city routes, Hyperloop will be used for longer inter-city routes."

https://www.boringcompany.com/faq

[PaulDavisThe1st]

I think you probably need to read Atrios (at least) on Boring Company (along with most of Elon's other stuff)

eschatonblog.com ... he probably has tags.

Suffice it to say that to say that Boring Company is getting closer to any of their stated goals is like saying that a monkey climbing a tree is closer to interstellar travel.

[writimov]

Did a site search "boring site:eschatonblog.com" and read through top 30 or so hits. Didn't see any arguments that Boring Company is fundamentally wrong and can't succeed through the limitations of physics.

Valid criticisms:

* Boring Co is moving pretty slowly.

* There are specific problems that have not been solved yet related to station design, the mini bus people mover vehicle (12 people) has not been made yet, self-driving cars aren't real yet, the actual Boring machines are only on version 3, the automated tunnel wall mfg and assembly machinery has not yet been built.

I agree that there are many assumptions (which could be incorrect) that need to be solved for the city to city test to succeed:

* Cheaper Station design for passenger and cargo load / offload.

* 12 person walk on / off bus mover vehicle design, manufacture.

* Self driving.

* Faster elevators and probably bulk elevators to move vehicles between levels of tunnels.

* Faster Boring machines

* Tunnel wall assembly machines from dug out dirt.

* Automated tunnel wall assembly.

The first solutions to these problems will probably be pretty crappy. But they will improve rapidly.

It's not clear how much of the Prufrock (3rd version of TBM) was built in house by the Boring Co. https://cleantechnica.com/2020/03/01/prufrock-next-generatio...

Godot (1X speed) was a straight up purchase of existing tech. Linestorm (2X speed) was partially upgraded from existing machinery from other companies by Boring Co. Prufrock (2->10X speed?) is the latest and version 3.

My guess is they need to get up to version 10 or more for a chance to beat Gary the snail. They still have a long way to go before they have their own machines 100% built by Boring Company that are much cheaper and faster.

Also, it doesn't look like there is much progress yet on the brick making machines. Or the automated tunnel assembly from bricks made from local dirt. The ideal system has definitely not been assembled yet: Boring machine -> dirt into wall sections -> wall sections assembled into tunnel wall.

So yes, there is a long way to go yet. But these are solvable problems that the team is working on.