Elon Musk has caused quite a bit of confusion over the last 24 hours, tweeting to his fans that he received “government approval” for a Hyperloop connecting New York to Philadelphia to Baltimore to Washington, D.C. It seems now that the matter of a “verbal” green light for the project is a little sketchy.

The Tesla Inc. Chief Executive might appear to some of his detractors as a bit of a mad scientist fond of making what could be called hyperbolic statements. Last weekend he warned the world that artificial intelligence could wreak havoc on humankind, and then there are his grand plans to colonize Mars. The question remains, however, if Musk is ahead of the game or perhaps unrealistically forward-thinking.

Musk took to Twitter on Thursday to announce that soon mean people could be traveling underground in vacuum tubes at high speeds from New York to D.C. “Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins,” Musk tweeted, and in another tweet explained the project would feature “City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city.”

Musk then back-pedaled, saying that his company were still waiting for “formal” government approval. The Guardian investigated the claim, but not before castigating the tech press, which it said had picked up on the story with “typical credulity.”

The Guardian may have a point. Philadelphia officials denied that they had had any contact with Musk or a representative from his companies, as did officials from the state of Pennsylvania, the New York City mayor’s office and the New York state Department of Transportation. The Baltimore mayor’s office also said it hadn’t spoken to Musk about such a project, but it was excited to hear about the idea.

The Boring Co., which is behind the Hyperloop project, told the BBC that it had had “promising conversations” with government officials. It also said it will start digging tunnels by the end of 2017. A spokesperson from the company said, “We look forward to future conversations with the cities and states along this route and we expect to secure the formal approvals necessary to break ground later this year.”

Image: The Boring Co.