Poor performance and even poorer public perception have forced the Boring Company to pivot away from its most ambitious projects. According to reports, Musk wants the company to be located in Texas and Miami in the near future. According to documents obtained by Businessweek, Boring has filed for permits to build a new test site and compound in Bastrop Country near Austin. The company plans to build a compound on the land with on-site housing and as many tunnels as necessary to test out new techniques for developing underground tubes. The test site's tunnels can be up to 600 feet long. 10 one-bedroom homes for workers will be built on the Texas site of Boring, as well as a cafe and retail buildings. The company recently submitted a proposal for a new loop tunnel in Miami. According to Insider, the proposal could potentially transport more than 7,500 passengers per hour. If Boring's recent displays are any guide, the figure could jump up to 15,000 per hour. The proposed Miami project could take less than three years to build, according to Boring. The company outlines ways it could expand the route, potentially adding connections to Hard Rock Stadium and Florida International University. The timelines and estimates should be taken with a grain of salt.
Some Florida officials were excited about the proposals.
North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph told Insider that this would be a way of alleviating a lot of traffic. Joseph claims that Musk's tunnels could come at a fraction of the cost of larger infrastructure plans and could potentially get started with relatively few major disruptions to the local economy.
The second attempt by Boring to cave out the ground beneath Florida in as many years took place in Miami. The mayor of Fort Lauderdale said last summer that the city had accepted a proposal to build a tunnel that would connect the city to the beach.
There are a number of reported pitfalls and strategic re-orientation at the company. The Boring company once had grand plans to build tunnels connecting Washington and Baltimore and another that would have shuttled Los Angeles residents to the Dodger stadium, but both of those plans were put on hold due to regulatory restrictions and environmental review. The company removed any mention of the projects from its website.
"I think you can declare these dead, I think you can do that," said Dena Belzer, President of Consultancy Strategic Economics.
Musk's other side hustles have failed to impress with the levels of hype attained by other still active projects. In Las Vegas, where Boring currently operates a tunnel, cars can only reach a top speed of around 35mph and have to drive one at a time. The videos posted of commuters using the tunnel appear to be half-assed.
In Texas, Boring's geographic reorientation makes sense. Musk himself moved his headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin last year. There are signs that some of the shakeup of tech workers in Texas and Austin is at least partially leveling out.
Metro areas in Texas and Florida, which lack subways and other forms of public transportation, need a major rethinking of their transportation infrastructure. Whether or not boring tubes can actually make a difference in that department is something else.
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