I personally know people that work at SpaceX (because my wife works there). Reusable rockets weren't a cheap marketing ploy. I don't have personal contact with anyone at the Boring Company, but it's located right across the street from SpaceX in Hawthorne, and I know that many of the people there are from SpaceX. In fact, I just drove past the test tunnel there this morning, as I dropped her off at work.
I might be biased given where my friends work, but how do you know that calling it a "marketing ploy" isn't an overly-cynical view of things? After all, Musk sees more cost reductions coming, and his track record has been pretty good (if a bit late at times).
I also have some questions for you that I hope can resolve things:
1. Do you believe it is possible to do better than the infrastructure projects in other countries that you cite?
2. Do you agree that it would be a good thing if they succeed in making tunnels far cheaper than they are anywhere else in the world?
Finally, I hope that my tone does not come across to you as being negative in any way. I do not mean to sound strident, overconfident, or for any of the above to come across as a put-down. I mean no harm!
Your tone does come off as negative, especially the second question. I think virtually everyone agrees with that, so why bother asking unless you are questioning the intelligence of him (which I do not think you do, but you come off that way)? If you do not want to sound negative you should skip any questions with only one sane answer.
1: yes I believe it is possible to better. However I also believe that many of the reasons those other countries do better than the US - as much a 7 times cheaper - are political and thus not something any manager can solve. Going from 4x more expensive than best world prices prices (LA is about 4x, NYX is about 7x) to 3.9x more expensive than world prices are possible - that is a drop in the bucket though compared to the 4x improvement possible by finding the real issues where are political.
I might be biased given where my friends work, but how do you know that calling it a "marketing ploy" isn't an overly-cynical view of things? After all, Musk sees more cost reductions coming, and his track record has been pretty good (if a bit late at times).
I also have some questions for you that I hope can resolve things:
1. Do you believe it is possible to do better than the infrastructure projects in other countries that you cite?
2. Do you agree that it would be a good thing if they succeed in making tunnels far cheaper than they are anywhere else in the world?
Finally, I hope that my tone does not come across to you as being negative in any way. I do not mean to sound strident, overconfident, or for any of the above to come across as a put-down. I mean no harm!