The Boring Company (TBC) is currently testing its third-generation boring machine in Texas. On Sunday CEO Elon Musk shared a video of Prufrock II emerging from the ground in Bastrop, Texas.
The exact location wasn’t revealed, or how long the test tunnel was, but Musk said it was long enough to go underneath a road from one property to another.
Prufrock II emerging from the ground pic.twitter.com/csamCrmAZa
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2022
In a follow-up tweet, Musk was asked how Prufrock II is doing when it comes to beating the pace of Gary the Snail.
While it is much faster than their first generation boring machine known as Godot+, Prufrock II isn’t quite fast enough to pass the average garden snail.
However Musk isn’t giving up, adding that one of TBCs boring machines (Prufrock III?) might be able to beat Gary the Snail by the end of 2024. The snail mascot was introduced in 2018 to illustrate how fast the boring machines are compared to the average garden snail.
Prufrock II was first unveiled in August 2021, and is the successor to Prufrock I, which was used to bore the Las Vegas Loop.
According to TBC, Prufrock II is designed to mine at up to 1 mile per week. When Prufrock III is built, the company’s medium term goal is for it to mine at a speed of 7 miles per day.
What makes the Prufrock design unique is its ability to porpoise, or dig directly from the surface without the need to excavate a large pit for it to begin tunneling.
