The UAE is one step closer to being the world’s first location for a new form of high-speed transport, after an agreement signed today between Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) and pioneering mobility company, Hyperloop One. The two parties have agreed to jointly explore routes for a transport system between Abu Dhabi and Dubai which will reduce journey times for people and goods between the two emirates to just twelve minutes.
The teaser video for the announcement was uploaded to the Hyperloop One YouTube channel a few days ago and highlighted some of the quick travel times between regional cities and work hubs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryRDxACsBCI
“In line with the vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum – Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai – RTA is collaborating closely with Dubai Future Accelerators to support innovative solutions for the future of mobility. This is an opportunity to help transform the UAE from a technology consumer to a technology creator, incubating expertise for a new global industry, in line with the UAE’s Vision 2021. With Hyperloop One, we will create a new means of transportation, keeping our region at the forefront of transportation technology and innovation.”
– H.E. Matter Al Tayer, Director General & Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA.
This is not the first agreement Hyperloop One has signed in the region. Back in August, the company agreed to conduct an economic and feasibility study in partnership with the third largest supply chain and terminals operator on the planet, DP World, which operates its flagship port out of Jebel Ali in Dubai. DP World believes it could possibly use a submerged, floating high-speed mode of transportation to redirect its cargo and free up some space on the land, should the feasibility study pan out as well.
“Having signed an agreement with DP World in August to pursue a cargo-based Hyperloop One system at Jebel Ali port, our focus has now expanded to include connecting the emirates. As the central global transport hub, pursuing the implementation of a Hyperloop in the UAE makes sense. The leaders of the UAE understand that transportation is the new broadband, with the power to transform life throughout the GCC. We are now at a stage where, from a technological point of view, we could have a Hyperloop One system built in the UAE in the next five years. Our agreement with the RTA is the biggest step yet towards achieving this goal.”
– Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One.
The Hyperloop is a method of high-speed transportation dreamed up by Elon Musk. Pods would travel in a low-pressure tube at speeds of up to 1,200 km/h, cutting down regional travel times. Benefits of the Hyperloop system include higher standards of safety than a passenger jet; lower build and maintenance costs than high-speed rail; and lower energy usage, per person, that is similar to a bicycle.
Alongside the signing of the RTA agreement, the Hyperloop One team introduced, for the first time ever, a vision that represents a complete transformation in the way that people travel in the twenty-first century.
“By making autonomous vehicles an integral part of the development of the Hyperloop One system, we are introducing the idea of seamless, uninterrupted end-to-end mobility. Imagine stepping out of your villa in Dubai, into a self-driving vehicle that resembles your living room, and arriving just 48 minutes later at your office in Riyadh. That is what Hyperloop One can deliver.”
– Josh Giegel, Hyperloop One’s President of Engineering.
Under the terms of today’s agreement, which was signed at the Burj Khalifa, Hyperloop One will work with McKinsey & Co. and the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) – a world-renowned team of architects and engineers – on a detailed feasibility study sponsored by the RTA. The agreement moves the company into its second stage of progress in the UAE, having been invited to the UAE to participate in the Dubai Future Foundation, culminating in a recent presentation of Hyperloop One’s vision to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
The engineers, architects and designers from Hyperloop One and BIG have collaborated intensively for six months to produce an original system design for Hyperloop travel. Today the company showcased the first-ever routes from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, several Hyperports (the equivalent of a station or airport) throughout Dubai, and the conceptual interiors and exteriors of the individual passenger pods. The work is based on a detailed study of how an urban and inter-city transport network should integrate with the existing infrastructure.
“With Hyperloop One we have given form to a mobility ecosystem of Hyperpods and Hyperloop One Portals, where the waiting hall has vanished, along with [the concept of] waiting itself. Collective commuting with individual freedom at near supersonic speed: we are heading for a future where our mental map of the city is completely reconfigured, as our habitual understanding of distance and proximity – time and space – is warped by this new form of travel.”
– Bjarke Ingels, founder, BIG.
