Science

The Boring Company’s ‘Monty Python’ Watchtower Is Real, and It Looks Great

Elon Musk is building up as well as down.

The Boring Company has been working on what is perhaps its most bizarre project yet. The tunnel-digging venture, started by Elon Musk in early 2017 as a way of alleviating Los Angeles traffic, has been building a watchtower near the SpaceX campus. The tower was originally announced by Musk on Twitter with a Monty Python reference, but images over the weekend show the entrepreneur was completely serious about his plan.

The tower seems like something of a detour for the firm, which is aiming to build tunnels that host electric skates moving up to 150 mph capable of transporting one car or 16 passengers at once. The developing spire actually links back to another of the firm’s goals, which is to make tunneling more economical. The tower uses the “Lego-like interlocking bricks” announced by Musk in March that retail for 10 cents each, created from the leftover tunnel dirt as a means of recycling waste. The team appears to be stacking the bricks into larger slates before lowering them onto a metal frame.

See more: The Boring Company’s Chicago ‘X Line’ Faces a Tight Deadline

The medieval watchtower was announced by Musk in September as a headquarters for the new company. Two months later, he put out a request to hire a knight to yell at people in a French accent, referencing 1970s comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Musk is a big fan of the comedy troupe, revealing earlier this month that he played a clip from Monty Python’s Flying Circus to communicate to executives how to fine-tune the sound of the Tesla Model 3 electric car prior to its July 2017 release.

The tower is taking shape ahead of The Boring Company’s big launch, where the company is expected to demonstrate its skate technology and take the wraps off its initial test tunnel. The construction runs from the SpaceX campus out to a Hawthorne house equipped with a car elevator in the garage, lowering vehicles down to whisk them along at speed. This demonstration comes ahead of a number of planned real-world deployments, like a 17-mile Chicago airport connection and a “Dugout Loop” to connect the Los Angeles baseball stadium to the city’s metro lines.

It all kicks off at the company’s big launch party, currently scheduled for December 18 after being pushed back by eight days earlier this month.

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