Elon Musk Fails to Deliver Boring Company Promises

Elon Musk promised to display a self-driving car traveling down a futuristic tunnel system to demonstrate the Boring Company’s abilities — instead, the company showed a regular car driving down a bumpy, patchwork tunnel.

As usual, it appears that Tesla CEO and Boring Company founder Elon Musk has promised more than he can deliver. The Boring Company held a product demonstration event this week, which Musk previously promised would feature “modded but fully road legal autonomous transport cars” and “ground to tunnel car elevators.” What the company delivered was far from the streamlined experience that Musk previously promised, the LA Times reports.

Boring Company product launch on Dec 18. More than a tunnel opening. Will include modded but fully road legal autonomous transport cars & ground to tunnel car elevators.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2018

Instead, in a parking lot next to SpaceX, The Boring Compan revealed a 1.14-mile route that runs approximately 20 to 40 feet beneath the streets of Hawthorne, California. So far, the tunnel had been used as a research project to develop new techniques and technology, but Musk stated that he hoped it would “ultimately be part of a much larger network in greater Los Angeles.”

The “fully road legal autonomous transport car” that Musk promised was not present at the demonstration. Instead, a Tesla Model X with a top speed of 53 mph driven by a human crawled along the tunnel. The car traversed the tunnel within two minutes, driving along two uneven concrete shelves which were far from the streamlined, futuristic experience that Musk promised.

One Twitter user pointed out some of the glaring issues with the tunnel and the test vehicle in a tweet which can be seen below:

They couldn't even make it look autonomous in the PR picture! there's a driver in the pic! He was a professional race car driver!

Also look at the lights literally plugged into an extension cord. nasty

Also the hardhats. no motion blur. The car is stopped in this pic. pic.twitter.com/Q2qpsztlrJ

— People's Grain (@GrainSurgeon) December 19, 2018

The same user pointed out some of the many safety issues with the tunnel that were not addressed:

Why? Well look how awful the tunnel looks. There's no utilities. It could flood. The quality sucks. There's no lighting. There's no air ventilation. It's 9 feet wide. It requires an elevator to enter and exit. There's literally nothing here that anyone would want to buy.

— People's Grain (@GrainSurgeon) December 19, 2018

Musk attempted to explain the failed PR stunt saying: “We kind of ran out of time. The bumpiness will not be there down the road. It will be as smooth as glass. This is just a prototype. That’s why it’s just a little rough around the edges.” However, the construction of this tunnel wasn’t particularly fast, taking 18 months and costing $10 million to build. The date of the demonstration was also set by the company itself, there was no reason to “run out of time,” when there was no deadline to display the tunnel.

But Musk still seems incredibly optimistic about this project, stating that his first ride through the tunnel was “epic,” and proved to the billionaire that “this thing is going to damn well work.” Whether Musk’s vision of an underground car transport system will work out remains to be seen, but based on this week’s demonstration, many are not hopeful.