Hyperloop prototype’s global premiere today
System could transport 10,000 people in each direction between Abu Dhabi, Dubai every hour
Host of the final week of UAE Innovation Month, Dubai will globally premiere the prototype of the Hyperloop super commuter system today that could transport up to 10,000 passengers in each direction between Abu Dhabi and Dubai every hour, said a senior transport official.
Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman and Director-General of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), is expected to be on hand for the unveiling of the prototype today at City Walk alongside Rob Lloyd, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop One, the startup firm working closely with Dubai toward making the project a reality.
Hyperloop, a subsonic commuter tube, is said to be capable of shuttling passengers in a travel pod from Dubai to Abu Dhabi at theoretical speeds of up to 1,200km/h.
Al Tayer said the “Hyperloop is part of RTA’s initiatives for Dubai Future Accelerators; [the] RTA and Virgin Hyperloop One Company have made considerable progress in the technical, engineering and economic feasibility study of the project.
The Hyperloop design was first conceived in a 2010 white paper by Elon Musk.
Hyperloop, a subsonic commuter tube capable of shuttling passengers from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes at theoretical speeds of up to 1,200km/h, will today be globally premiered for the first time at City Walk, according to the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
The public rollout of the prototype is part of a new exhibit to mark UAE Innovation Month giving visitors a glimpse of the revolutionary transport system that Dubai first announced in August 2016 as a driverless urban mobility option for the future.
In a statement yesterday, the RTA confirmed that the project has advanced to the stage where the agency has identified preliminary Hyperloop routes.
The RTA said it will “unveil the initial design of the Hyperloop, which will be exhibited for the first time in the world, in collaboration with Virgin Hyperloop One, as part of its participation in UAE Innovation Month”.
Virgin Hyperloop One chairman Richard Branson has invested heavily in the transportation start-up firm and is working closely with the RTA.
Alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday in Mumbai, Branson just inked a major deal to build a Hyperloop system between Mumbai and Pune that will reduce travel time between the two cities from three hours to 25 minutes.
In a statement yesterday, Rob Lloyd, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop One, lauded Dubai, the RTA and the UAE for being “early supporters of our Hyperloop technology, so it is particularly exciting to be unveiling the Dubai Hyperloop pod with the RTA here [in Dubai]”.
“Our focus in 2018 would be
continuing the close collaboration with RTA to progress to the next phase of the project. Our aim would be to explore the viability of a wider UAE Hyperloop network,” Lloyd said.
The Hyperloop design was first conceived in a 2010 white paper by Elon Musk, a billionaire inventor who helped found Tesla Motors and SpaceX. He described his open-sourced Hyperloop system as a “cross between a Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table” for combining subsonic speed and the levitating ability of air pressure.
Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of the board and director-general of RTA, said yesterday that Dubai wants 25 per cent of all journeys in the emirate to be driverless by 2030 as part of the RTA’s SelfDriving Transport Strategy to reduce traffic congestion and slash carbon emissions.
Al Tayer said the ongoing Hyperloop project work in the last two years has brought the project closer to reality.
Dubai Future Accelerators
“The Hyperloop is part of RTA’s initiatives for Dubai Future Accelerators; [the] RTA and Virgin Hyperloop One Company have made considerable progress in the technical, engineering and economic feasibility study of the project. Progress made also included identifying the routes for operating the Hyperloop along with its initial design model, which will be exhibited for the first time in the world,” Al Tayer said.
“When introduced in future, the Hyperloop technology will impact the town planning and the availability of parking spaces. It will revolutionise people mobility between various destinations in the city, logistical hubs like airports and ports, and shipping patterns,” Al Tayer said.
He noted the RTA will also showcase other self-driving autonomous pods, high-frequency express buses, and the Urban Mobility Innovation Index (UMii) at the new exhibition starting on Thursday.
“During UAE Innovation Month, the RTA will exhibit the Self-Driving Transport Pods Project which will undergo trial runs as announced during the World Government Summit.
“These pods, the first of their kind worldwide, have been designed to travel over short and medium distances on dedicated lanes. They can be coupled in 15 to 20 seconds or detached, depending on the destination of riders, in five seconds.
“They are fitted with cameras and electro-mechanical technologies to carry out the coupling and detaching processes, and this feature can be activated in-motion. Each pod is designed to travel short and medium distances and has a capacity to accommodate ten riders [six seated, four standing],” Al Tayer said.