The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunnel-digging venture, may be eyeing its next project in Austin, Texas. The company recently posted half a dozen new jobs in the city and tweeted favorably about Austin’s soil.
It’s not surprising that the Boring Company would target Austin for its next project. Musk’s other company, Tesla, recently announced that the city would be the site for its next factory, with a focus on Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck production.
Rumor has it that “Austin Chalk” is geologically one of best soils for tunneling. Want to find out? Austin jobs now available.https://t.co/imlQMDfprJ
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) November 9, 2020
The jobs available in Austin range from electrical engineer to mechanical engineer, business development lead, and technical recruiter. It’s unclear whether the Boring Company has actually initiated conversations with local officials about a tunneling project. A spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Whether a possible Austin project is connected to Tesla’s planned factory there also remains up in the air. If so, Tesla certainly has laid the groundwork by working with local officials for months on issues surrounding the factory. In July, officials in Austin approved a total of at least $60 million in property tax rebates for the company.
Tesla plans to hire up to 5,000 workers at an average salary of $47,147, with entry-level positions starting at $35,000. It will invest at least $1 billion and is planning to make a factory of between 4 and 5 million square feet.
The Boring Company has a 1.14-mile test tunnel near SpaceX’s headquarters in Los Angeles. It is also currently working on a system of tunnels to shuttle people under the Las Vegas Convention Center — though that project won’t carry as many passengers as originally estimated. The company’s plans to build a fast transit system in Maryland were recently scaled back, and its Chicago project is all but dead after Lori Lightfoot’s election as mayor in 2019.
