The Scissor Test. Within the first few weeks of me joining TBC, Steve gave me the direction that he wanted to be able to walk around a Prufrock with a pair of scissors, be able to cut any wire, and the machine should still be able to mine. Obviously this was a hypothetical exercise, but the goal was real. What followed was a deep system-wide failure mode effects analysis and a complete redesign of the machine’s electrical system to be able to pass the scissor test. There are still a few single points of failure where the complexity or cost tradeoff doesn’t make sense to design out, but for the most part Prufrock now passes the scissor test. Being robust to a single failure is obviously important, but equally as important is observability of those failures. Without observability, a failure can lay latent in the system without anyone noticing for years and then when the backup fails the system will still go down. For this reason we make sure to instrument each redundant connection so when any failure happens we instantly know, get a notification, and can schedule a repair for the next maintenance day - all while Prufrock keeps mining. That’s what lets these machines keep mining continuously with zero people in the tunnel. We’re hiring electrical engineers. Come help us keep pushing this further. Link to apply in the comments below 👇

This is Prufrock, riding The Monster, riding an SPMT, driving through Las Vegas. After we retrieve a machine, an SPMT drives directly under The Monster. That lets us move this 530,000 lb Prufrock section plus the ~140k lb Monster through city streets. The SPMT is a self-propelled modular transporter: dozens of independently steered axles that can crawl, crab, and rotate a load this size around an intersection. When we get to the next site, The Monster tilts ±10° and launches Prufrock straight into the ground.

Each Prufrock carries 2.6 million watts of electrical capacity. That’s the same as: • ~4,000 corded power drills • The continuous draw of more than 2,100 American homes • 1,444 hair dryers running at full blast We typically only use about half of that at current mining speeds. The rest is pure headroom for going faster. Three 13.2 kV substations power every machine. All three designed in-house by our electrical engineering team. We’re hiring at every level. Link to apply in the comments below 👇

I’ve never seen a real inventory system succeed without physical access control. Has anyone actually pulled this off—even at the small, sub-team supply level? Not talking Kanban for consumables. I mean actual inventory. If so, what was the trick?

On hard-rock machines like Prufrock Main beam, the propulsion system doesn’t push off a tunnel liner — because there is no liner. The rock itself forms the walls. Instead, Prufrock Main beams grip the tunnel walls with ~4 million pounds of horizontal force. Think of bracing yourself hard against both sides of a narrow hallway and then pushing forward. That’s the principle. By gripping the rock directly, we delete entire subsystems: no liners, no erectors, no segment handling, no grout. The result is counter-intuitive: the maximum theoretical tunneling speed through hard rock is significantly higher than through soft soil. Simpler machine. Faster progress

Everything takes longer than you think it will — no matter how hard or how fast you work. And while you’re in it, it almost always feels messy. That perceived "mess" is usually a sign you’re actually growing. The only organizations that feel clean and orderly all the time are the ones that have stopped evolving. Static. Bureaucratic. Safe. When you’re in the middle of it, it’s easy to look at the chaos and decide something is broken. Most of the time it’s the opposite. Growth requires change, and change never shows up neatly packaged. Part of my job is helping the team — and myself — hold this perspective.

🔥 PART 4 | FIRST EVER RECORDED Boring Company Full Tour Steve Davis (President of The Boring Company) sits down and goes deep on tunnels, Prufrock, Bastrop Tunnels & more. @boringcompany @Mike__Baier In this exclusive Part 4, Steve Davis spends real time talking with me about everything happening behind the scenes at The Boring Company — from the latest tunnel progress to what they’re building next. This is the most in-depth, unfiltered conversation ever captured on camera with Steve Davis about The Boring Company.

“If it’s long, it’s wrong” is a core principle regarding part-lead times. If you have long-lead parts, do everything possible to either find a new supplier, design them out, or bring the part in-house. It’s about protecting future optionality — another non-negotiable principle.

Every Prufrock that leaves the factory has over 1,000 changes from the one before it. Before it ships, we put it through a full Porpoise Test (PT) in Bastrop — a short test tunnel (typically under 200 rings) that lets both the design team and the test team gather real data on the new designs and on the specific Prufrock serial number. To date, we’ve completed six of these tests and Prufrock 5 is currently 200 rings into PT7. Once complete, the tunnels are put to use: • PT4 is now a vacuum tunnel for Hyperloop testing • PT5 is a live test bench for liner trucks and new belt systems • PT6 is a pedestrian tunnel connecting SpaceX to Hyperloop Plaza With porpoise testing, our engineers get to get hands on and stress-test every one of their designs in real world environments without ever leaving Bastrop. We are currently hiring Electrical, Mechanical, Test, and Software engineers. Link to apply in the comments below 👇

we need skilled trade workers! especially here in Nashville... and vegas, texas, everywhere. There is a huge labor shortage. and be sure to check out if you want to be part of one of the largest infrastructure projects in America.

One of the more novel pieces of equipment we run is The Monster — conceived, designed, and built right here in Bastrop. It weighs ~140,000 lb and carries Prufrock sections that weigh between 465–480k lb. Its platform tilts ±10°, which lets the machine launch directly into the ground — no pit, no shaft, no concrete, and no crane. Because it eliminates the crane, we can launch and retrieve machines inside buildings and parking garages, which is key to maximizing tunnel usefulness in urban areas. When we complete a tunnel and retrieve Prufrock on The Monster, an SPMT can be driven directly under it. We then drive Prufrock to the next tunnel site, where The Monster tilts downward and launches it straight into the ground. This enables Prufrock to relaunch in under 24 hours. The video below is from us retrieving Prufrock 3 inside the Tesla Gigafactory.