Elon Musk went on a weird tweet storm about a snail - and it's a reference to how quickly he'll tunnel under LA

Advertisement
Elon Musk went on a weird tweet storm about a snail - and it's a reference to how quickly he'll tunnel under LA

Advertisement
Elon Musk

Getty

Elon Musk wants The Boring Company to move faster than a snail.

  • Elon Musk went on a weird tweet storm about a snail.
  • It appears to be a reference to how quickly he wants The Boring Company to move in its mission to build a network of tunnels under Los Angeles.
  • Musk said if the tunnelling can move at one-tenth of walking speed, a mile could be completed every three hours.


Elon Musk is not adverse to an outburst on Twitter, but even by his standards, a tweet storm in the early hours of Friday morning had some people puzzled.

It started with an emoji of a snail, and developed into an allegory on how the mollusc is capable of moving faster than Musk's firm, The Boring Company, is able to tunnel under Los Angeles.

"His name is Gary & he's a snail," the Tesla CEO said, in an apparent nod to "SpongeBob SquarePants" character Gary Wilson Jr. "He taunts us with his speed ... But The Boring Company is right behind you at 1/15th your speed & soon will be 1/10th! Start sweating."

The tweet thread appeared to reference something Musk said during a community meeting on Thursday in LA, where he discussed the progress The Boring Company is making in its mission to build a network of transportation tunnels under the city.

"We do want to be faster than a snail, which is way harder than it sounds," he told the meeting, according to a video on Bloomberg. He said the ultimate ambition for the tunnelling is to move at one-tenth of walking speed, which would mean you could "get a mile done every 3.3 hours."

Last week, Musk posted footage of a prototype vehicle tunnel bored underneath Los Angeles, saying it would be available for people to use in a matter of months. People will be able to try it for free, he said.

{{}}