Elon Musk has ambitious plans for his tunneling company — here's what we know (TSLA)

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is taking his newest venture underground.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO revealed in April his plan for the Boring Company, a new venture that is exploring a way to cut tunneling costs in order to relieve traffic congestion on roads and highways.

Details on Musk's exact plan and its feasibility are still scarce, but here's what we know so far:

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Musk aims to build an underground network of tunnels where cars and trains could travel at super high-speeds.

Musk said on Twitter in December that he wanted to build a tunnel boring machine because LA traffic was driving him "nuts."

Los Angeles has the worst traffic of all the cities in the US, so Musk's frustrations aren't unique to him.

In February, Musk fleshed out his plan in a Bloomberg profile. He said the company's ultimate goal is to build an underground network that "includes as many as 30 levels of tunnels for cars and high-speed trains such as the Hyperloop."

The Boring Company is currently testing a tunnel boring machine that was used for a sewer project in Sunnydale, California. The ultimate goals is to use the machine, named Godot, to learn how tunneling technology can be altered to dig tunnels faster and at a lower cost.

Source: Boring Company tunnel presentation, via Electrek.

The Boring Company is looking to cut down costs by building a machine that can dig and place reinforcements in the wall at the same time, Musk said in April. Tunneling machines traditionally dig for half the time and then go back to add reinforcements, a longer and costlier process.

Godot has successfully dug a tunnel on SpaceX's parking lot at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Rocket Road in Los Angeles.

The Boring Company was granted approval in August to extend the tunnel two miles beyond SpaceX's parking lot. That means the tunnel will continue under the city of Hawthorne.

The tunnel can only be used for research and development. Once the Boring Company has completed its tests, the city of Hawthorne can request that the Boring Company fill the tunnel back up with soil.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider