How The Boring Company is increasing tunneling speed

I was kind of shocked to see their illustration was tunnelling under a road. It may have been a misapprehension but I thought they were aiming much longer tunnels. Obviously the fact they think they can deploy much quicker than traditional TBMs means that has a huge impact on total time.<p>Also, if you tell me you can sell cornflakes cheaper than kelloggs, I don&#x27;t expect you to deliver me 60% less conflakes. So why is the diameter redution being counted as a way to reduce cost?

I wonder if the autopilot has special emergency modes for driving in half-duplex tunnels like this. Could a following car be instructed to push a disabled vehicle to safety? Can the autopilot drive backwards out of the tunnel? There&#x27;s no room for escape from a fire, flooding or various kinetic failures. Imagine a defective wheel letting go in that little tunnel.

They&#x27;re developing an upgraded tunnel boring machine that is 10x faster than existing ones, and can be launched directly from the surface instead of needing excavation.

For those asking it&#x27;s only for autopilot cars that use a specific app not the usual car app. They had released a demo ride here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;FrgdvvgvI_I" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;FrgdvvgvI_I</a>

&gt; TBC’s current tunnels are designed and built in preparation for their eventual transition to Hyperloop.<p>One would expect no less... exciting times ahead.

If they really can get the cars running at 150 mph regularly these might be competitive for long journeys in Europe. Obviously it will depend in some part on the self-driving technology.