I think there's another, more prosaic aspect to consider. It's possible that when Musk did his research, he found that the reasons tunnel boring were unreasonably slow weren't actually technical in nature. But actually coming right out and accusing an entire industry of essentially graft wouldn't be good PR. So he alludes to it by giving BS reasons.

I’d assume musk would just say it.

And now that you mention it, this is going to be the other major issue with the boring company - unions, people and regulations.

Well, we're already seeing Musk's approach to human resources in Tesla. And the regulatory issue he probably thinks he can get around simply by being useful enough to the government that they'd be willing to give him political cover.

Say what you will about unions, or even automotive unions, but the crap the unions pull when it comes to tunneling projects is insane.

We probably need unions to help stop wage stagnation. Which is why it sucks that unions in the US are so terrible.

> the crap the unions pull when it comes to tunneling projects is insane.

That tells me all I need to know about why The Boring Company exists.

As far as I know, there are already boring machines that assemble the tunnel as they go. I recall seeing video of one being operated, though perhaps it was a prototype? Perhaps those manufacturers' machines don't operate at the speed of Elon's but if that's the distinguishing factor then it's not really much of a distinguishing factor.

EDIT: Theptip below found the URL I could not, for boring machines that assemble the tunnel while operating: https://www.herrenknecht.com/en/products/core-products/tunne...

Why would an order of magnitude improvement not be a distinguishing factor?

Because there is nothing in the design of the Boring Company that shows any significant or magnitude improvement over the existing ones. https://pedestrianobservations.com/2017/12/15/elon-musks-ide...

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.

The second part has been available for decades. I visited the prep site of a TBM doing exactly that back in the 90s, and there was nothing new about it back then.