July 8, 2017: 3:16 PM ET Elon Musk's Boring Company releases slick video Elon Musk was clearly not joking when he said he was so tired of Los Angeles traffic that he was going to buy a tunneling machine "and just start digging." The billionaire entrepreneur now has a tunnel-boring machine that is tearing through the earth under a plot of land that his rocket company, SpaceX, owns in the LA suburb of Hawthorne. Musk even tweeted last month that an elevator -- which will allow cars to access the tunnel -- should be "up and running" shortly. But the project is still in its infancy. The Los Angeles city government told CNNMoney that the company doesn't have any permits to dig under city property. The odds of The Boring Company making significant progress anytime soon are slim to none. And Musk himself admitted its success is a longshot. Even so, Musk has a history of trying to bring the impossible to life. Here's where things stand. The name is boring The idea for this company was first presented to the world when Musk got caught in one of LA's notorious traffic jams in December 2016. Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging... A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on May 12, 2017 at 5:48am PDT Musk's tunneling ambitions also tie in closely with one of his other long shot ideas -- the Hyperloop. The Hyperloop is a concept for a high-speed rail that travels through a vacuum-sealed tube and uses magnets to whisk passengers between cities in minutes. This concept would require underground tunnels as well. "If you build a tunnel that is good enough to resist [ground water], it is automatically capable of holding vacuum," Musk said in April. Why tunnels? Musk believes the future of transportation is with tunnels and autonomous electric cars, not mass transit systems. He said in April that riding in emissions-free and autonomous cars will eventually "cost less than a bus ticket." If that proves true, it would mean more and more cars clogging up roadways. Musk argues that tunnels are a superior solution to that problem. A Boring Company concept video shows a vast network of tunnels shuttling cars in every direction. "You can go much further deep than you can go up. The deepest mines are much deeper than the tallest buildings are tall, so you can alleviate any arbitrary level of urban congestion with a 3D tunnel network," Musk has said. And Musk says not to worry about the digging process disrupting people above ground. He says he plans to dig deep enough that you won't be able to detect the boring process. This is a tiny side job Saying Musk has a full plate is an understatement. He founded Tesla