If you think electric automobiles are the only thing Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is working, think again. He’s also the chief of privately-owned and operated satellite-launching service SpaceX, and of course, Tesla is also now the parent of solar panel maker Solar City. No wonder Tesla stock still feels so speculative.

It’s Musk’s Boring Co., however, in the spotlight this week after the city of Chicago tapped it to develop a high-speed electric car system that would ferry people between O’Hare Airport and downtown. Total travel time? About twelve minutes.

The interesting part of the stand-alone train car? It would travel underground through a newly-bored, 14-feet-wide tunnel, drilled out by the Boring Company’s ‘Tunnel Boring Machine.’

The Future and Tesla Stock

The announcement rekindles a project former Chicago mayor Richard Daley long dreamed of, and even started, but could never see through to the end. It took a man of Musk’s vision and defiance as well as a few technological leaps to allow current mayor Rahm Emanuel to move the idea forward.

Of course, in that no public funds will be used for the project, Emanuel can afford to green light the project. The Boring Co and Musk, who sees it as a money-making prospect, will be taking the risk.

It’s arguably the least known of Musk’s companies, yet simultaneously one of the most practical ones in that it doesn’t require the proverbial reinvention of the wheel.

The Tunnel Boring Machine, or TBM for short, is just a giant underground drill not unlike the one that cleared out a path for the underground/underwater tunnel that connects the United Kingdom to France.

The self-propelled drill the Boring Co will be using for the proposed tunnel in Chicago will be slightly smaller than the one used to build Europe’s ‘Chunnel,’ though, and half the size of other boring machines the Boring Co has proposed for use in similar projects at other locales.

It is futuristic, though not outlandish by today’s standards. Indeed, there’s a certain level of brilliance to it, with surface traffic reaching nightmarish levels of congestion, and with the flying cars hypothesized back in the 50’s still being nowhere commonplace [flying cars exist, but that’s another story].

The cars that will carry passengers along the track are less like train cars and more like actual automobiles. In fact, the platform to be used as delivery vehicles will be built on a modified Model X chassis, and use much of the same technology found in Tesla’s electrically-powered automobiles.

Each so-called ‘skate’ can hold up sixteen passengers.

…and Here Come the Tesla Stock Critics

Unsurprisingly, doubters and critics soon surfaced following Thursday’s announcement. The concerns are varied, though predictable.

One of them is the potential danger associated with burying transit underground. In the case of an accident, getting rescue workers to and from a crash site (though this sort of rail system is phenomenally safer than driving a car on the streets of an around Chicago) could prove difficult. Equally difficult could be simply getting out of the tunnel if the skates can’t run.

That concern presumes the 18-mile tunnel can be dug in the first place, in just the three years Musk says it would take, and only cost the $1 billion Musk says it will cost him and/or his Boring Co.

Doubts have been raised on all three fronts.

Jim Hambleton, Northwestern University professor of civil and environmental engineering, weighed in on the news, explaining “There’s reason to be skeptical. Tunneling is an endeavor that’s filled with uncertainty. You don’t know what’s going to happen once you get underground.”

The price tag is also in question. At a total cost of $1 billion for the 18 mile project, Musk is effectively saying he can bore a mile-long vertical tube 30 to 60 feet below the surface at a cost of $55.5 million per mile.

It’s not clear if the Tesla chief is only talking about the drilling cost, or factoring in the cost of constructing the rail once the shaft is bored out.

Then again, it may not matter. Similar projects, though with wider tunnels, have cost roughly ten times that figure, suggesting Musk’s penchant for underestimating the amount of time and money needed to complete projects (which owners of Tesla stock well know) has once again set the stage for an unpleasant surprise.

Bottom Line

Ergo, the Boring Co and Elon Musk may soon find themselves in over their heads, fiscally and logistically speaking. Then again, long-term followers of the Tesla saga aren’t really surprised to see it happening outside the Tesla’s fiscal four walls.

Nevertheless, the end-goal is admirable and cool even if cost overruns and delays are in the cards.

If nothing else, a successful construction and implementation of an electrically-powered transit system will serve as a learning tool and proof of concept that Musk can point to when he’s proposing similar, more financially-viable projects to other cities running into insurmountable traffic problems.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter, at @jbrumley.