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I maintain the belief that Boring Company's purpose, first and foremost, is to confuse and derail (pun intended) local efforts to build real transit. Anything

I maintain the belief that Boring Company's purpose, first and foremost, is to confuse and derail (pun intended) local efforts to build real transit. Anything they do happen to build is incidental to that goal, and as such it's unsurprising that actual construction would be a shitshow.

Qem 11mo ago
They should rebrand Screwing Company.
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- iancmceachern 11mo ago
  This is my favorite HN comment of the year. Thank you.
travoc 11mo ago
Which transit effort did they derail in Nashville? There was nothing on the horizon.
cowsandmilk 11mo ago
That this is being built instead of “Let’s Move Nashville” is a shame.
youngtaff 11mo ago
> I maintain the belief that Boring Company's purpose, first and foremost, is to confuse and derail (pun intended) local efforts to build real transit. Well that was the purpose of the Hyperloop too
- hamdingers 11mo ago
  Same strategy at different scales, Boring Company is to local transit what Hyperloop is to regional. The original proposal was squarely aimed at disrupting CAHSR, but existing bureaucratic dysfunction is more than sufficient to prevent anything being built at that scale in the US, so Hyperloop was proven unnecessary and abandoned.
alexose 11mo ago
The original stated goal was to 10x the speed of existing tunnel boring machines by bringing up the cutting head RPMs, automating liner installation, and speeding up spoil removal with electric sleds. Which would seem like a good bet, except that there are a million other bottlenecks to the process. On top of that, it doesn't seem like they even solved their core problems. It would be cool if they'd post a postmortem or something, but I get the impression that reporting bad news is a good way to get fired in an Elon-run organization.
- quickthrowman 11mo ago
  I’m not sure why anyone believed this load of lies, tunnel boring is a mature industry with multiple companies that make tunnel boring machines, and tunnel boring has been around for well over a hundred years. The cutting heads move slowly because they’re between 3 and ~50 feet in diameter (1 to 15 meters for non Americans) Anyone claiming they can 10x the speed of a physical process that has been worked on by thousands of engineers over more than a century is full of shit. Anyone who bought that explanation is either far too credulous or just doesn’t understand what it takes to bore a large diameter tunnel.
  - jstanley 11mo ago
    > Anyone claiming they can 10x the speed of a physical process that has been worked on by thousands of engineers over more than a century is full of shit. Metal machining processes had been around for well over 100 years when tungsten carbide tooling came along, and that increased cutting speeds by 10x over HSS. It happens.
    - quickthrowman 11mo ago
      Tunnel boring is only partly about boring the tunnel itself, bracing the tunnel and removing the spoils probably take as much time as boring the tunnel itself. It’s a complex process with work crews, management layers, multiple subcontractors, multiple stakeholders, etc. Replacing the tool on a CNC mill with a tungsten carbide tool takes what, a few minutes? Assuming you already have the tool. It’s also insanely easy to verify a tungsten carbide CNC tool is 10x faster at cutting metal than high speed steel vs. testing ‘This tunnel boring machine will be 10x faster.’ One takes minutes, the other takes years.

Qem 11mo ago

They should rebrand Screwing Company.

deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
iancmceachern 11mo ago
This is my favorite HN comment of the year. Thank you.

travoc 11mo ago

Which transit effort did they derail in Nashville? There was nothing on the horizon.

cowsandmilk 11mo ago

That this is being built instead of “Let’s Move Nashville” is a shame.

youngtaff 11mo ago

> I maintain the belief that Boring Company's purpose, first and foremost, is to confuse and derail (pun intended) local efforts to build real transit. Well that was the purpose of the Hyperloop too

hamdingers 11mo ago
Same strategy at different scales, Boring Company is to local transit what Hyperloop is to regional. The original proposal was squarely aimed at disrupting CAHSR, but existing bureaucratic dysfunction is more than sufficient to prevent anything being built at that scale in the US, so Hyperloop was proven unnecessary and abandoned.

alexose 11mo ago

The original stated goal was to 10x the speed of existing tunnel boring machines by bringing up the cutting head RPMs, automating liner installation, and speeding up spoil removal with electric sleds. Which would seem like a good bet, except that there are a million other bottlenecks to the process. On top of that, it doesn't seem like they even solved their core problems. It would be cool if they'd post a postmortem or something, but I get the impression that reporting bad news is a good way to get fired in an Elon-run organization.

quickthrowman 11mo ago
I’m not sure why anyone believed this load of lies, tunnel boring is a mature industry with multiple companies that make tunnel boring machines, and tunnel boring has been around for well over a hundred years. The cutting heads move slowly because they’re between 3 and ~50 feet in diameter (1 to 15 meters for non Americans) Anyone claiming they can 10x the speed of a physical process that has been worked on by thousands of engineers over more than a century is full of shit. Anyone who bought that explanation is either far too credulous or just doesn’t understand what it takes to bore a large diameter tunnel.
- jstanley 11mo ago
  > Anyone claiming they can 10x the speed of a physical process that has been worked on by thousands of engineers over more than a century is full of shit. Metal machining processes had been around for well over 100 years when tungsten carbide tooling came along, and that increased cutting speeds by 10x over HSS. It happens.
  - quickthrowman 11mo ago
    Tunnel boring is only partly about boring the tunnel itself, bracing the tunnel and removing the spoils probably take as much time as boring the tunnel itself. It’s a complex process with work crews, management layers, multiple subcontractors, multiple stakeholders, etc. Replacing the tool on a CNC mill with a tungsten carbide tool takes what, a few minutes? Assuming you already have the tool. It’s also insanely easy to verify a tungsten carbide CNC tool is 10x faster at cutting metal than high speed steel vs. testing ‘This tunnel boring machine will be 10x faster.’ One takes minutes, the other takes years.