6 ms·

And the Tesla Roadster was just a modified Lotus Elise. Buying an of-the-shelf product and reverse engineering it, before building ones' own, is a very valuabl

And the Tesla Roadster was just a modified Lotus Elise. Buying an of-the-shelf product and reverse engineering it, before building ones' own, is a very valuable step.

threeseed 7y ago
But are they actually building their own ? Haven't seen anything covered about what they've built or how it compares with anything else on the market.
- dv_dt 7y ago
  With the Tesla EV, you have to market to the public how the car is better because you're selling it to the end customer. With the Boring company, you don't have to prove to anyone but yourself, or the governments or the project investors that your bid is good.
- mikeyouse 7y ago
  Yeah they are.. they have a few, their first was just off-the-shelf technology, the second is a hybrid, and their third one is apparently fully designed by Boring Co.: https://tunnelinsider.com/everything-we-know-about-the-boring-companys-three-tbms/ https://tunnelinsider.com/everything-we-know-about-the-borin...
  - ericd 7y ago
    Pretty sure that's a joke, unless rocket engines are suddenly useful for tunnel boring...
    - mikeyouse 7y ago
      The pictures are jokes since it's proprietary to the company, but the names and descriptions are real. There were some spy shots of the gantry being used to set up 'proof-rock' awhile back: https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-the-boring-company-tunnel-boring-machine-gantry-takes-shape-chicago/ https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-the-boring-company-tunne...
mbesto 7y ago
And Tesla's Gigfactory is a JV with Panasonic and partially funded by taxpayers. I'd say the largest value add about Elon Musk is his ability to create a reality distortion field to convince large swathes of people to follow his dream. I'm actually not being critical of Musk here. Jobs did this and you can see how transformative certain technologies have been as a result.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Can’t we call it passion and vision instead of “reality distortion field”?
  - JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
    Can we have passion and vison that doesn't need reality distorted and instead follows truth and the laws of physics and logic in our universe?
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - asdff 7y ago
    Passion and vision are a part of it, but the reality distortion field encompasses everything good, bad, and ugly about musk that he offers to the public, unsavory tweets included.
  - conjectures 7y ago
    Can we not use the word 'passion'. In a world where subway job applicants need to have a passion for sandwiches the word has long since passed its sell by date.
- Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
  > And Tesla's Gigfactory is a JV with Panasonic and partially funded by taxpayers. What you don't seem to understand is that the battery tech's problems currently are not the chemical process or format of the cells, but the volume. The volume of cells that we are able to produce. This is a major bottleneck of electric cars. It is not just some minor problem, it is a great fundamental problem. This is also why tesla can churn out hundreds of thousands of cars with battery only, and with range of hundreds of miles, and where practically all other manufacturers in this price range are only able to do hybdrids with small batteries. This is not coincidence, this is because tesla has a gigafactory and those others do not and are subject to volume problems in the outside battery production chain. So no this is not only about vision, Tesla (whether Musk himself or his engineers) identified a real problem, and engineered a real solution - the gigafactory.

And the Tesla Roadster was just a modified Lotus Elise. Buying an of-the-shelf product and reverse engineering it, before building ones' own, is a very valuable step.

threeseed 7y ago

But are they actually building their own ? Haven't seen anything covered about what they've built or how it compares with anything else on the market.

dv_dt 7y ago
With the Tesla EV, you have to market to the public how the car is better because you're selling it to the end customer. With the Boring company, you don't have to prove to anyone but yourself, or the governments or the project investors that your bid is good.
mikeyouse 7y ago
Yeah they are.. they have a few, their first was just off-the-shelf technology, the second is a hybrid, and their third one is apparently fully designed by Boring Co.: https://tunnelinsider.com/everything-we-know-about-the-boring-companys-three-tbms/ https://tunnelinsider.com/everything-we-know-about-the-borin...
- ericd 7y ago
  Pretty sure that's a joke, unless rocket engines are suddenly useful for tunnel boring...
  - mikeyouse 7y ago
    The pictures are jokes since it's proprietary to the company, but the names and descriptions are real. There were some spy shots of the gantry being used to set up 'proof-rock' awhile back: https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-the-boring-company-tunnel-boring-machine-gantry-takes-shape-chicago/ https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-the-boring-company-tunne...

mbesto 7y ago

And Tesla's Gigfactory is a JV with Panasonic and partially funded by taxpayers. I'd say the largest value add about Elon Musk is his ability to create a reality distortion field to convince large swathes of people to follow his dream. I'm actually not being critical of Musk here. Jobs did this and you can see how transformative certain technologies have been as a result.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Can’t we call it passion and vision instead of “reality distortion field”?
- JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
  Can we have passion and vison that doesn't need reality distorted and instead follows truth and the laws of physics and logic in our universe?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- asdff 7y ago
  Passion and vision are a part of it, but the reality distortion field encompasses everything good, bad, and ugly about musk that he offers to the public, unsavory tweets included.
- conjectures 7y ago
  Can we not use the word 'passion'. In a world where subway job applicants need to have a passion for sandwiches the word has long since passed its sell by date.
Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
> And Tesla's Gigfactory is a JV with Panasonic and partially funded by taxpayers. What you don't seem to understand is that the battery tech's problems currently are not the chemical process or format of the cells, but the volume. The volume of cells that we are able to produce. This is a major bottleneck of electric cars. It is not just some minor problem, it is a great fundamental problem. This is also why tesla can churn out hundreds of thousands of cars with battery only, and with range of hundreds of miles, and where practically all other manufacturers in this price range are only able to do hybdrids with small batteries. This is not coincidence, this is because tesla has a gigafactory and those others do not and are subject to volume problems in the outside battery production chain. So no this is not only about vision, Tesla (whether Musk himself or his engineers) identified a real problem, and engineered a real solution - the gigafactory.