They tend to bid for fixed-price opportunities, though, so overstating wouldn't matter to the city as the company would eat the cost. People thought Elon was "

They tend to bid for fixed-price opportunities, though, so overstating wouldn't matter to the city as the company would eat the cost. People thought Elon was "reality distortion field"ing SpaceX, too, but because COTS and CRS were fixed price, SpaceX was able to prove themselves. And for a while, SpaceX did struggle to meet launch rate, etc. But they ultimately DID deliver, so therefore they got paid (in cost plus, you can get paid simply for doing work, regardless of the project being completed) and now they dominate the entire industry in both price and reliability.