Let’s talk about hyperloops. They represent a very real future for the transportation of humans and goods, and yet, I’d wager a large sum of money that few of us understand what a Hyperloop actually is/does. Hyperloop is a new form of ground transport that uses a network of subterranean tunnels inside of which large pods carrying passengers and cargo travel to their goal destinations. Hyperloop’s key difference between traditional ground transport is the pods hover in a vacuum-sealed tube utilizing a frictionless system similar to how an air hockey table functions. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX, and for the purpose of today’s content, The Boring Company, first presented plans for a hyperloop back in 2013 with the goal of creating a form of travel faster than any plane, train, or automobile.
In Musk’s original proposal, his hyperloop design depicted the pods with small hets of air on the bottom of each vessel, but according to Vox, most engineers now believe the use of magnets to generate pod levitation is the most effective form of propulsion for the hyperloop. Naturally, Musk, a man considered to be “arguably the most successful and important entrepreneur in the world” by the New York Times, decided it was only prudent to create an offshoot entity from his rocket-building SpaceX to develop hyperloop solutions exactly to his liking, and thus, the Boring Company came to life.
Elon Musk founded The Boring Company in 2016 because of his strong belief that, after decades of 2D transportation using traditional roads, highways, and sidewalks, humanity deserved better. In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, he explained that an unfortunate fact of human nature is that when people make up their mind about something, whether this something is how they feel about a particular food or form of transportation, they tend not to change — “even when confronted with facts to the contrary.” It is the opinion of this online journalist that Elon Musk created the Boring Company to spite those who remain unchanged despite the presence of clear facts that would otherwise change their minds.
The core mission behind the founding of the Boring Company was to create a mass network of tunnels with electric transit systems meant to alleviate the stresses caused by gridlock traffic. It wasn’t surprising that Musk announced that Los Angeles, California would be the first American city to reap the benefits of improved transportation. Several weeks ago, Musk tweeted a video of “the Boring Machine,” a play-on-words name for the tunneling device used to “bore” a hole for the hyperloop, breaking through to the first station in a planned network of tunnels under the city of Los Angeles.
It seems as if Elon Musk could work on literally any project from his imagination and make it a complete success. Imagine if he decided, after building rockets, electric-fueled vehicles, and futuristic subterranean transports systems, to sell bricks, wouldn’t that be the most painfully ironic business venture one could think of? Well, knowing seemingly no bounds, Elon Musk gave the Boring Company its first subsidiary back in July, a new company called The Brick Store LLC, purposed with producing and selling bricks. According to documents discovered by TechCrunch, Steve Davis, a former SpaceX engineer, filed the paperwork necessary to establish The Brick Store on Aug 29, 2018, basing the company in Burlingame, California. Interestingly enough, The Brick Store’s first physical location will be in an old kitchen cabinet shop in Hawthorne, California, several miles from Tesla (TSLA) HQ. The new location sits above an exit tunnel being dug by The Boring Company to extract the boring machine from its first test tunnel, according to TechCrunch.
As far as the inventory for Musk’s new brick stores, he plans on using bricks already produced from The Boring Company’s test tunnel’s churned-up dirt.
“The Boring Company is building a watchtower in LA out of dirt bricks & we need a knight to yell insults at people in a French accent.”
–Elon Musk on Twitter
Musk’s innovative use of tunnel refuse for brick production is not a new concept. Bricks made from plain-old soil are called compressed earth blocks (CEB), and this technology dates back thousands of years to the first standing structures built by native civilizations.
If you tell Elon Musk that he cannot do something, or present him with a task that was previously considered to be unsolvable, he will undoubtedly prove you wrong. Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX, The Boring Company, and The Brick Store are just testaments to the fact that this man will innovate even if society refuses to change their opinion despite being confronted with facts to the contrary.
