Employee dishes on Boring Company insider details, LA tunnel future

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A former employee of Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has started an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit under the username “Gizmo,” and some juicy details have emerged.

The user’s account has been verified by Reddit moderators, so we know that Gizmo is speaking from a place of authority.

There aren’t many public details about the company aside from it being primarily run by interns and only taking up 2-3% of Musk’s time, so Redditors jumped at the chance to learn more.

One user asked about the plan for when the company’s tunnel reaches the end of the SpaceX parking lot, to which Gizmo replied:

“Hope really hard that LA lets us continue.
No, really. The permitting is a huge nightmare and there wasn’t a solid plan when I left. So it all depends on where the tunnel goes and if all the appropriate easements/landowners/laws can be satisfied.”

The tunnel has been lauded by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, but there are still many regulatory hurdles to overcome, as Gizmo pointed out.

Another user asked about the company’s biggest risks.

“Ooh. Well there’s a lot of them. In no particular order
Buy-in from cities/[landowners]
Permitting (oh god the permitting)
Public acceptance (a big concern I’ve heard is “where are the windows?”)
NIMBY (not in my backyard) folks
Time required (right now we still can’t even move at the speed of a snail)
Honestly, the technical details are not a huge risk. Elon’s already discussed why earthquakes aren’t a big issue, and tunneling isn’t exactly new – we’re just looking to apply new technologies to an old industry.”

My favorite username of the bunch, Donttouchmyficus, asked how Gizmo was first hired by the company.

“I was actually recruited through my college. One of my good friends (currently an associate engineer working on MVac) had an internship as a junior. SpaceX tends to keep in contact with their interns and so he was essentially our campus recruiter.
Maybe February or March he forwarded me an email to apply for Boring Company jobs, they were hiring just a few people. The week of my graduation (first week of May) I actually got a call from Steve Davis who’s in charge of the whole project, and 4 days later I was in LA.
As for who they’re looking for, I would say it’s definitely younger or more motivated people. They love students that are involved in clubs like Formula SAE or have done research, rather than just completing courses and doing honors work. We’re working out of the SpaceX headquarters and the culture is therefore much the same as you might hear about them.”

A fourth user inquired about the production side of the business, which shed some light on The Boring Company-SpaceX relationship, since Boring operates outside of SpaceX’s HQ.

“We’re using the SpaceX facilities heavily. The Tooling department hates us. They’re incredibly competent though – some of the best welds I’ve ever seen were on the elevator frame. Very few dedicated tools, but there’s plenty to borrow usually.”

Gizmo adds, “The tunneling aspect is only part of the project. There’s a lot more involved in tunneling than just the actually tunnel – the support infrastructure (this includes the elevator) is very important.”

The final question that caught my eye was about the safety and effectiveness of The Boring Company’s elevator and if “perfect alignment” was needed to ensure no damage to the vehicles using it.

“There were a number of solutions discussed for the issue of alignment etc. I believe one solution has been to only allow Teslas which will integrate with the elevator and therefore align themselves through AP. [Besides] that, there will definitely be additional safeguards added, particularly in terms of occupant and pedestrian safety.”

With interesting insider details and a potentially ground-breaking impact, the only growing concern surrounds the Hyperloop permit process. If acquiring permits is as nightmarish as Gizmo points out, it could be a long time before Americans see any kind of Hyperloop tunnel.

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