Billionaire Elon Musk says he really does plan to dig a tunnel to avoid LA traffic, and that he plans to start "digging next month." 
 
 Musk first announced his intentions in December, complaining that traffic in Los Angeles is out of control. 
 
 But that was then followed by some tweets that suggested he was joking. 
 
 Some have found it hard to believe that Musk, who already is pretty busy running Tesla (with its recent SolarCity acquisition), SpaceX, and the OpenAI project, is serious about boring through the earth beneath southern California to avoid traffic, but the entrepreneur has repeatedly stressed he is not merely trolling. 
 
 Musk said he plans to start digging "across from my desk at SpaceX. Crenshaw and the 105 Freeway, which is 5 mins from LAX." Crenshaw Boulevard is a major street in Los Angeles that runs past SpaceX headquarters and the adjacent Tesla Design Center. 
 
 As with any Musk project — self-driving cars, human colonies on Mars — questions remain over whether laws, or simple scientific realities, could stymie such a project. 
 
 A Musk spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. 
 
 It might not seem terribly wise digging underground in a city known for its earthquakes, but Los Angeles does have a underground rail system already — though it is far more limited in range than those in other major U.S. cities. 
 
 When Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer introduced a bill into the Senate in 2007 to allow for the expansion of Los Angeles' subway system, Feinstein said, "Experts have now assured us that tunneling technologies have improved sufficiently to allay" concerns over earthquake damage. 
 
 So Musk's tunnel may be possible. ||||| Elon Musk: billionaire, entrepreneur, and man with a Twitter account. It’s a lethal combination that means when Musk tweets, we must ask questions. Namely: is he serious? 
 
 Last month, the SpaceX CEO sent out a string of tweets complaining about traffic. He suggested that a possible solution might be to start a tunnel-digging firm called — wait for it — The Boring Company, following it up by saying “I am actually going to do this,” and updating his bio to read: “Tesla, SpaceX, Tunnels & OpenAI.” This morning, he repeated the claim, and even assured a questioner that he was, in fact, serious. 
 
 Exciting progress on the tunnel front. Plan to start digging in a month or so. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2017 
 
 But is he? 
 
 The thing is, the idea of building tunnels to “solve” traffic sounds, on the face of it, no wilder than Hyperloop or a mission to Mars. By which I mean: it might be technically possible, but the logistical headaches involved mean there has to be serious will (and money) behind any efforts. Do we think Musk is really going to build a tunnel from his desk at SpaceX, as one tweet suggested? No. 
 
 @_wsimson Starting across from my desk at SpaceX. Crenshaw and the 105 Freeway, which is 5 mins from LAX — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2017 
 
 More plausible explanations for Musk’s interest in tunnels include the fact that, with President Trump’s pledge to fund infrastructure, starting a boring company now might be a lucrative idea. Or it’s just a joke — related, perhaps, to Trump’s plans to build a border wall with Mexico. After all, in the same Twitter sesh Musk also said his “neural lace” required for our conversion to cyborgs would be announced next month. It’s clear the man has a sense of humor. 
 
 We’ve messaged Musk to ask what’s going. Fingers crossed he’ll be a little more serious in his DMs than his tweets.
– Say what you will about Elon Musk, he's not boring. But apparently that could change next month. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX tweeted last month about traffic in Los Angeles "driving me nuts" and said he was going to make a tunnel boring machine and "just start digging." He insisted at the time that he was serious. Musk was back to talking tunnels Wednesday, when he tweeted that he's planning "to start digging in a month or so." CNBC reports the plan is apparently to start drilling at SpaceX in order to tunnel under Los Angeles and get around its notoriously awful traffic. While it appears possible—probable?—that Musk is joking (he's dubbed his tunneling business The Boring Company), USA Today points out the man did send rockets to space and popularize electric cars. If anyone is going to successfully tunnel under Los Angeles, Musk would be the one to do it. But he would have to get around laws, permitting, and what CNBC calls "simple scientific realities." The Verge reports it's more likely that—if not joking—Musk is simply trying to set himself up to take advantage of President Trump's promise to throw money at infrastructure projects. In fact, Musk met with Trump this week.