Elon Musk’s Boring Company-branded flamethrowers are coming to a doorstep near you.
At a Boring Company event on Thursday night, the billionaire tech mogul disclosed that the $500 (£351) flamethrowers would start shipping within the next two weeks.
Musk, who has already delivered branded hats, also revealed ‘superbricks’ made from the material excavated from tunnels are coming next, and also recently pledged to made Boring Company branded candy.
At a Boring Company event on Thursday night, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk disclosed that the $500 (£351) flamethrowers would start shipping within the next two weeks
But don’t expect Musk to hand deliver a flamethrower to your door.
The firm is using its own delivery vans to deliver the 20,000 flamethrowers sold after encountering ‘some delivery challenges,’ Musk said at the event.
‘They don’t like it if you ship things with propane,’ Musk explained.
ELON MUSK’S ‘SUPERBRICKS’: WHAT MAKES THEM DIFFERENT?
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk revealed in March that his next venture will involve selling Lego-like blocks made from rocks dug from the Boring Company’s tunnels.
The Boring Company is working to build an ‘autonomous, underground multi-level car system’ in Los Angeles, called ‘Loop’, that will carry passengers at high speeds aboard electric shuttles.
A man poses with the Boring Company’s snail mascot, Gary, on top of one of the new bricks after a community meeting at which Elon Musk spoke
To do this, the firm is digging a network of passageways beneath the city that could eventually number in the thousands.
Instead of disposing of leftover earth removed as part of the Boring Company’s network of tunnels, Musk plans to recycle it.
The Boring Company is working to build an ‘autonomous, underground multi-level car system’ in Los Angeles, called ‘Loop’, that will carry passengers at high speeds aboard electric shuttles. One of the Boring Company’s two tunnel digging machines is pictured
Instead of disposing of leftover earth removed as part of the Boring Company’s network of tunnels, Musk plans to recycle it into bricks
It’s unknown when these bricks will be made available for purchase, but Musk said they would sell them for ‘like 10 cents or something like that’.
Musk said the bricks are ‘stronger and smoother’ than traditional cinderblocks and that they’re compressed at ‘extremely high pressures,’ including only a small bit of concrete in each one.
He believes the bricks could one day be used to build affordable housing.
But in the meantime, consumers can order the Lego-like bricks as kits that can be used to build structures in their backyard.
‘First kit set will be ancient Egypt — pyramids, Sphinx, temple of Horus, etc’, Musk wrote on his Twitter.
The company had already hinted at these plans on the FAQ page on its website.
‘Buildings have been constructed from Earth for thousands of years including, according to recent evidence, the Pyramids’.
‘These bricks can potentially be used as a portion of the tunnel lining itself, which is typically built from concrete’, it reads.
‘But we’ve got a solution, which is custom delivery to your house or business with a Boring Company delivery van.’
‘We’re just going to get some vans and people and deliver it to you. It starts in two weeks,’ he added.
Last December, Musk teased that he would create the ‘safest flamethrower ever’ after selling 50,000 Boring Company hats.
Boring Company founder Elon Musk (pictured) spoke at a company event on Thursday and shared new details about the firm’s plans to create a network of tunnels beneath Los Angeles
Last December, Musk teased that he would sell the ‘safest flamethrower ever’. The $500 product went on sale in January and sold out within hours of becoming available
Most people seemed to assume that he was joking.
‘I know it’s a little off-brand, but kids love it,’ Musk continued in a tweet.
Within hours of the flamethrower becoming available, orders flooded in by the thousands.
In total, Elon Musk’s tunneling company has sold 20,000 flamethrowers and raised $7.5 million in the process.
Some savvy consumers were even reselling the ‘zombie-killing’ flamethrowers oneBay for thousands of dollars.
The flamethrowers originally cost $500 (£351), but some eBay listings priced ‘brand new’ flamethrowers at upwards of $20,000 (£14,164).
In a video on Instagram, two Boring Company employees are shown firing up the flamethrowers. Musk also posted a video of him trying out the weapon
At Thursday’s event, Musk also gave a glimpse into the bricks Boring Company plans to sell next.
The Boring Company is working to build an ‘autonomous, underground multi-level car system’ in Los Angeles, called ‘Loop’, that will carry passengers at high speeds aboard electric shuttles.
To do this, the firm is digging a network of passageways beneath the city that could eventually number in the thousands.
Musk has an idea about what the company plans to do with all the dirt dug up in the process.
He hopes to reuse the dirt as material for bricks, which could one day be used to build houses.
‘We’re creating our own concrete segments and we’re creating them onsite using dirt from the ground,’ Musk explained.
A first glimpse of an ‘almost done’ test tunnel in Los Angeles was shared online by Elon Musk on May 11. The billionaire shared footage of his Boring Company’s exploratory excavation, which will be open to the public and offering free rides within months
‘These bricks are made by compressing the dirt at extremely high pressures and then adding a small amount of concrete’
‘We can sell the bricks for like 10 cents or something like that. And they’re really great bricks’, he added.
Musk went on to say that the bricks are ‘stronger and smoother’ than traditional cinderblocks.
They may even sell them in ‘life-size Lego kits’ that people can order online, then build iconic structures like the Egyptian pantheon and the Great Sphinx of Giza.
‘You can order a kit and build this in your backyard. It seems like a fun way to spend an afternoon,’ Musk continued.
The company had already hinted at these plans on the FAQ page on its website.
‘Buildings have been constructed from Earth for thousands of years including, according to recent evidence, the Pyramids’.
‘These bricks can potentially be used as a portion of the tunnel lining itself, which is typically built from concrete’, it reads.
These aren’t the only novelty items that Musk has tried to sell.
The Boring Company’s proposed route (in red) is from SpaceX in Hawthorne to West Los Angeles passing underneath Sepulveda Boulevard through Culver City. Musk has claimed the tunnel trip will take five minutes, compared to 45 minutes driving in normal LA traffic
Musk had claimed he would begin selling flamethrowers in December if his tunnel-digging firm the Boring Company sold 50,000 hats.
The Boring Company sold an astonishing 30,000 hats, raking in a total of $600,000, since the item first went on sale in October.
When the flamethrowers went on sale, Musk tweeted updates nearly every few minutes or so.
‘When the zombie apocalypse happens, you’ll be glad you bought a flamethrower,’ he tweeted last Saturday.
‘Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!’
The Boring Company also offered a $30 (£21) fire extinguisher, which quickly sold out.
Some where selling ‘combo packs’ of the Boring Company flamethrowers and extinguishers on eBay.
Musk said in a tweet on Thursday that each of the flamethrowers would be individually numbered.
WHAT IS ELON MUSK’S ‘BORING’ PLAN?
When Elon Musk first announced his plans to bore a tunnel to his SpaceX offices in Los Angeles, it was hard to know if he was simply venting his frustrations about being stuck in traffic.
‘Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…’, he tweeted in December of 2016.
He ended his rant on the social media site with: ‘I am actually going to do this’.
The billionaire’s tunnel-digging firm ‘The Boring Company’ has presented its plans to build a 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting. Pictured is an image shared by Musk in October of the firm’s test tunnel in Los Angeles
The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm’s boring machine back in February 2017 with the caption ‘Minecraft’ – a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources.
On Monday, January 22, 2018, the Boring Company presented plans to build the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting.
According to the plans, the privately-funded tunnel would carry cars on ‘electric skates’ at 150 miles per hour (240 kph) to help with LA’s ‘soul-destroying’ congestion.
The proposed route goes through West Los Angeles passing underneath Sepulveda Boulevard through Culver City.
The tunnel could also make Hyperloop adoption viable.
Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at over 600 miles per hour (965.6 kilometers per hour) between distant locations.
Musk’s proposed first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, then to Santa Monica, and end in Westwood. Musk claims the tunnel trip will take five minutes, compared to 45 minutes driving in normal LA traffic
It was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes – half the time it takes a plane.
It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum.
The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes.
In August of 2017, Elon Musk took to social media to share progress on his traffic-beating tunnel beneath Los Angeles, revealing it was big enough to fit a Tesla Model S
Here’s where the Boring Company’s current projects stand:
- Hawthorne: A test tunnel has been permitted and is under construction.
- Los Angeles: An excavation permit application has been submitted to the City of Los Angeles. The project would be a 6.5 mile (10.5 km) proof-of-process tunnel which would run within the City of Los Angeles and Culver City.
- East Coast: The Boring Company says its working with federal and state officials on a DC-to-Baltimore route which would then be extended to New York. The State of Maryland has granted permission for 10.1 miles of tunnel beneath the state-owned part of the Baltimore-Washington. The company has released details of twin tunnels for 35 miles from downtown DC to downtown Baltimore, beneath New York Avenue and then the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. In the future this could be extended to New York.
- Chicago: The company says it’s responding to the RFQ released by the City of Chicago to compete to fund, build and operate a high-speed Loop connecting Chicago O’Hare Aiport to downtown.