Elon Musk's Boring Company Launches New Challenge To 'Beat The Snail'

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's tunnel boring company has launched a new competition as it looks to make technical advancements in the field.

The Boring Company's "Not-a-Boring Competition" will take place in spring next year; registration is open to students, companies, and hobbyists, the Musk-led company said. The news was earlier reported by Electrek.

The challenge will be to "beat the snail" when it comes to the pace of boring a tunnel. Tunnel Boring Machines or TBMs are "super slow," according to the California-based company. "A snail is effectively 14 times faster than a soft-soil TBM," it says.

Participants will compete for three titles, including "fastest to complete tunnel," "fastest to complete tunnel and a driving surface," and "most accurate guidance system," by boring a 30-meter long tunnel with a cross-sectional area of 0.2 square meters.

The Boring Company will use a remote-controlled Tesla Inc. TSLA vehicle to test drive through the tunnel.

Musk, who also leads Tesla and the Space Exploration Company, had launched the tunnel boring company in December 2016 to build transportation corridors for both intra- and inter-city travel with the aim to "solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic."

Image: the Boring Company