WATCH: Worlds FIRST Hyperloop will take you from Dubai-Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes, RTA signs deal

Dubai - The Hyperloop can travel to up to speeds of 1,200 km/hr, significantly cutting down the journey time from 2 hours to mere minutes!

The future is here, it's hypersonic and it's coming first to Dubai!

The futuristic city-state of Dubai announced a deal on Tuesday with Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One to study the potential for building a line linking it to capital Abu Dhabi.

The announcement of the deal took place atop the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, with the panorama view of the skyline of this futuristic city-state serving as both a backdrop and a sign of Dubai's desire to be the first to rush toward the future.

However, no financial terms were immediately discussed and the technology itself remains under testing. A hyperloop has levitating pods powered by electricity and magnetism that hurtle through low-friction pipes at a top speed of 1,220 kph (760 mph).

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk first proposed the idea in 2013.

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.

Matter Al Tayer, Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA, commented on the agreement, saying, "In line with the vision of His Highness Shaikh 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."

Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One said, "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."

He continued, "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."

The idea of a Hyperloop - a low-pressure tube through which levitating pods can travel at up to 1,200 km/h - has recently gained attention around the world.

Benefits:

- Higher standards of safety than a passenger jet, lower build and maintenance costs than high-speed rail, and 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," said Josh Giegel, Hyperloop One's President of Engineering. "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."

Under the terms of today's agreement, 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 Shaikh Mohammed

Organisers suggest the Dubai-Abu Dhabi travel time by hyperloop would be only 12 minutes - significantly down from the hour-plus journey it now takes by car between the two cities.

In October, Dubai hosted a competition to design a hyperloop track. In that 48-hour project, designers presented ideas for a possible track between Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, Dubai International Airport and Fujairah International Airport.

Under their plans, the hyperloop trip of some 145 kilometers (90 miles) over a mountain range would be 10 minutes or less, compared to the current hour and 20 minutes by road.

The deal announced on Tuesday would be far simpler. There would be several stations throughout Dubai connecting the hyperloop system to Abu Dhabi.

The pods would then be able to carry passengers and cargo between the cities. Already, government-backed port operator DP World has signed an agreement with Hyperloop One to explore the feasibility of the using the technology at Dubai's sprawling, man-made Jebel Ali Port.

The agreement with Hyperloop One 'to create new means of mobility' that will make travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in just 12 minutes.

Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA, said the partnership will put Dubai at the forefront of future mobility. He added that Dubai will also evolve from being "technology user to technology creator."

Earlier in October, in an exclusive video from BIG, Jakob Lange (director of BIG Ideas), a unit at the Danish firm focusing on technically demanding and experimental projects - including the "grand vision" for Hyperloop One, he outlines the plan for the ambitious project between the two emirates.

In this sneak preview, Lange shows snippets of the design before its official unveiling on 7 November 2016 in Dubai, dezeen reported.

"We are in a new time now where you can develop a new transportation system in very few years and change the world," said Lange.

"We're not waiting for new technology like carbon nanofibers or anything in order to do this," he added.

"We have everything we need to do it."

In October, six global teams presented their concept for the Hyperloop system designed to reduce travel time between Dubai and Fujairah to 10 minutes at the 'Build Earth Live' competition hosted by Dubai Future Foundation on Tuesday.

The signing ceremony:

In a teaser video released in October, Lange and his enthusiastic team could be seen scouring locations to build the project in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Travelling from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes might seem like a leaf out of a science fiction book, but thanks hyperloop technology - the brainchild of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk - it may soon be a reality.

The Hyperloop One system: Conceptual Vision

The engineers, architects and designers from Hyperloop One and BIG have collaborated intensively for six months to produce a wholly 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. It's autonomous, point-to- point and vastly simplifies the experience of getting from your front door to your destination.

"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 waiting itself," says Bjarke Ingels, founder, BIG.

"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.

In less than two years, Hyperloop One has raised more than $160 million, assembled a team of more than 200 world-class experts, built a campus in Downtown Los Angeles, a test and safety site in the Nevada desert, and a 10,000-sq. m. machine and tooling shop in North Las Vegas.

"The momentum is global and accelerating," says Rob Lloyd. "The world will see the test of the first full-scale Hyperloop system in early 2017 at our Test and Safety Site in Las Vegas, and we will have multiple operational Hyperloop systems within five years."

Global trade enabler DP World has also announced a multi-million dollar investment in US-based Hyperloop One to provide funds for the continued research and development of Hyperloop technology building on the company's successful test in May 2016.

Earlier this year, Hyperloop One carried out a successful test of its propulsion technology for Hyperloop in a desert outside Las Vegas, where it achieved speeds of 187 km/h in 1.1 seconds.

The company's main competitor is Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which is also planning similar projects in the US and Europe.

It is noteworthy that even India is in talks to build a Hyperloop that would take passengers around India within 30 to 90 minutes.

• Abu Dhabi
• Dubai