Dubai may actually become the first place in the world where Elon Musk's crazy Hyperloop idea is built on a large scale and put to commercial use.
"It’s got the infrastructure, regulatory movement and kind of capital in place needed to build it already," Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One, a startup developing Musk's open-source technology, told Tech Crunch .
The insanely fast transportation system, which could transport people or goods between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 15 minutes, would be constructed at Dubai's Jebel Ali port. Hyperloop One will be conducting an economic and feasibility study with DP World, which operates the port and is the planet's third largest supply chain and terminals operator.
DP World believes that a Hyperloop could contribute greatly to its shipping operations, according to Tech Crunch. However, the company is waiting to see how the feasibility study will pan out before planning to move forward with construction.
Although this could be the first Hyperloop built for commercial use, Hyperloop One has already begun testing the technology in the United States. The company has also done similar feasibility studies in several other locations around the world.
Essentially the Hyperloop train will shoot capsules at high speeds through a nearly complete vacuum inside a large-scale tube. When implemented, the technology could drastically decrease required transport time, allowing cities to become more like metro stops than distant destinations.
Currently, several different competitors are vying to develop the technology that Musk published a 57-page alpha white paper on in 2014.