Skip to main content

Watch Elon Musk’s Boring Company control its giant tunnel digging machine with a Xbox controller

Elon Musk’s Boring Company is currently developing more advanced tunnel digging technology for its upcoming new mass-transit projects in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Maryland.

Now the company is teasing its latest giant boring machine being operated by an Xbox controller.

The startup is currently working with 3 different boring machines.

One is currently buried underneath 120th street in Hawthorne near SpaceX’s headquarters sporadically digging a tunnel that is now about 1-mile long.

The Boring Company is learning from their work with this machine in order to develop a faster and more powerful one that would enable them to reduce the cost of boring tunnels.

Parts of that second machine is sitting next to the Hawthorne tunnel entrance and it looks like it was what the company is working on in this new video shared by Musk:

They are controlling the machine with an Xbox video game controller.

It appears to be the part that places the tunnel sections on the sides as the head of the machine grinds forward.

Currently, boring machines, including the one used in the Hawthorne tunnel by the Boring Company, require a worker moving around with the tool in order to guide it in the right position, which is both inefficient and dangerous.

It looks like the startup is attempting to find new ways to control and place those sections.

Elon Musk’s startup will have to accelerate the development of its boring technology as it currently has many projects already lined up that will require to put its machines to the test.

The Boring company recently announced a new tunnel and ‘loop’ to get to Dodger Stadium in 4 minutes. The project is one of several currently underway by the company, which also won a bid to build a ‘Loop’ transit system in Chicago and it is also working on a Baltimore-DC tunnel.

Earlier this year, the startup raised over $100 million, mostly from Musk himself, in order to develop the technology to eventually be able to deliver those projects.

They expect the Dodger Stadium system to be the first as they currently work on CEQA before starting construction, which they see lasting up to 14 months.

Chicago might be next as Musk said that he wants the Loop to be ready “within 18 to 24 months”, but he said that it could take longer though it’s “unlikely” going to take more than 3 years.

All those projects are financed by money raised by the company.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Stay up to date with the latest content by subscribing to Electrek on Google News. You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.

Comments

Author

Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek.

You can send tips on Twitter (DMs open) or via email: fred@9to5mac.com

Through Zalkon.com, you can check out Fred’s portfolio and get monthly green stock investment ideas.