The Boring Company Launches Brick Trade – TechCrunch



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Elon Musk has He made some incredible and crazy tweets over the last year, but he was not joking about bricks. Musk has created a company called The Brick Store LLC to produce and sell bricks, according to public documents obtained by TechCrunch.

The new company, which was founded in July, will be led by Steve Davis, the former SpaceX engineer, who also directs The Boring Company (TBC).

TBC is developing new tunnel and transportation technologies, and the bricks will be made from soil moved by the company's tunnel boring machines. Elon Musk has tweeted that the bricks could cost as little as 10 cents each and could even be given to affordable housing projects.

The Brick Store's first physical outlet will be far removed from Tesla's stylish and designer showrooms. Planning documents Submitted to Hawthorne, a town in southwestern Los Angeles County, shows a dilapidated stucco building, located about 1.5 km from TBC and SpaceX headquarters. The forbidden black steel security grilles "will be used … to accent the entrances and windows," writes TBC in its application to repaint the building.

Despite these floral developments, TBC did not choose the building for its aesthetic appeal. The building – which once housed a kitchen cabinet business – is located above an exit tunnel that TBC is digging to extract the boring machine from its first test tunnel. This is intended to highlight Loop, a proposed underground transportation system carrying people or cars on stand-alone electric skates moving at a maximum speed of 150 miles at the time.

Originally, the tunnel was to extend for a distance of about three kilometers under public roads from a parking lot next to SpaceX. However, in April of this year, TBC used a subsidiary to quietly purchase the Hawthorne Corner Lot, located halfway along the planned route, for $ 2 million.

In July, TBC asked Hawthorne permission to use this lot to build an access well in order to extract its tunnel boring machine which, failing being able to retreat, would otherwise have been abandoned at the end of the excavation.

The same month, Musk founded The Brick Store, whose purpose, according to state statements, is to "manufacture and sell bricks". TBC has already produced structures from bricks made from tunnel waste. tweeted yesterday, they would be used to build a watchtower at the tunnel entrance.

Turning tunnel waste into a valuable commodity is part of Musk's environmental concerns – and will prevent TBC from reducing the cost of scrapping all this dirt. TBC even suggested that bricks could possibly be used in tunnel lining. Musk Previously, the tunnel would officially open on December 10th.

TBC did not immediately respond to requests for comments on this story.

Bricks made from everyday soil, commonly referred to as compressed earth blocks (CEB), date back to ancient times. CEBs are still used in developing countries and are part of building codes in California and New Mexico. But even there, their market is tiny – perhaps because the CEB's buildings can be difficult to build, wire and insulate. British Columbia has even suggested that bricks could eventually be used in tunnel lining.

Sleeping earth sells machines that produce CEB by applying pressure on a mixture of soil and a little cement.

"Elon seems to have the means to put his energy and talent to the service of great challenges, and we are happy to see that he can be as enthusiastic about [CEBs] as we are, "TechCrunch Bob de Jong, founder of Dwell Earths, told TechCrunch.

The boring company

To be confirmed received around 112 million dollars of Musk earlier this year. These funds will be used to build a number of tunnels across the country, including a loop to connect the Dodger Stadium to L.A.'s metro, a Chicago-O'Hare Airport link, and an ambitious commuter loop between Washington and Maryland.

These projects could be thwarted, or at least delayed, because of an increasingly fierce trade war between the United States and China.

Lawyers to confirm wrote In July, the US Trade Representative said that President Trump's tariffs on Chinese TBMs, among other products, would delay his plans for two years and result in job losses. . The company has requested an exemption from tariffs that has not yet been granted.

If there is anyone who can change the brand and create a market for the CEB is Elon Musk. But even if the bricks of The Brick Store do not collect enough money for a mission on Mars or to save the planet, they are at least a little more practical than a novelty "and not a flamethrower.. "

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