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Travel from Abu Dhabi-Dubai in 15 minutes by 2021?

Dubai - 'Hyperloop' sled speeds through US desert via electromagnets.

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By Reuters/Angel Tesorero

Published: Sat 14 May 2016, 8:39 PM

Last updated: Sat 14 May 2016, 11:33 PM

A car-sized sled powered by electromagnets rocketed to more than 100 miles (160 kph) an hour through the Nevada desert on Wednesday in what the Los Angeles company developing the technology said was the first successful test of a futurist transit system called hyperloop.
Hyperloop One is among several companies competing to bring to life a technical vision by Elon Musk, the founder of rocket maker SpaceX and electric car company Tesla Motors, who suggested sending pods holding passengers and cargo inside giant vacuum tubes between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Commenting on by when the hyperloop would be in operation, CEO Rob Lloyd, in a recent interview said: "I'm entirely convinced we'll be seeing freight moved in a Hyperloop by 2020, maybe 2019, and our first passengers by 2021."
Abu Dhabi to Dubai in 15 minutes?
Imagine this: Travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in a tube at hypersonic speed. Travel time is just 15 minutes and fare is paid not by cash or card but with digital currency from your smartphone. The environment has become pollution-free because of nanotechnology that harnesses energy more efficiently
This scenario was painted at the World Government Summit, earlier in February this year, by speakers who discussed the hyperloop transport system, bitcoins and nanotechnology as the future of renewable energy.

Brogan Bambrogan, co-founder and chief technology officer of Hyperloop Technologies, said: "Hyperlop is not science fiction, it is real and it's happening. We are doing hardcore engineering to bring this technology from the drawing board to real hardware, into reality."

Bambrogan described the hyperloop as the future of transport, travelling at near the speed of sound. This futuristic mode of transport was first conceptualised by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk who called it the "fifth mode of transport."

Hyperloop is a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table." It does not need rails and could work either above ground or underground. It is an air pod - extremely smooth, comfortable, safe and fast ride like in an elevator (but) with no stops - taking you directly to your destination."
Bambrogan said a full system test is happening in Nevada, USA, by the end of this year, and this can be commercially available in five to six years. If built in the UAE, Bambrogan added, travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai would take as little as 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Cary, co-founder and president of Blockchain, said the public don't need to look far beyond the future to use innovative currency.
Cary said: "Bitcoins can revolutionalise how people pay for goods and services and move money around the world ... they are the best form of currency in digital age.
"Digital is part of everyone's DNA; Bitcoins offer frictionless and borderless transactions that are more open and more equal."
He added that Bitcoins, which are exchanged over the internet outside existing banking and governmental institutions, are safer than credit cards in making online purchases. Cary noted that more than $1 billion has been invested in Bitcoin technology and other future developments include using this currency for asset tracking, supply chain monitoring, payment rails and smart contracts.
The environment also took centre stage at the summit.
Talking about the future of renewable energy, Justin Hall-Tipping, CEO of Nanoholdings, said governments should make use of nanotechnology in solving environmental problems and depleting energy sources.
"With the earth's population reaching seven billion, we currently need 3.5 cubic miles of earth's resources, including energy, to sustain our lives. We get these cubic miles from oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear energy and burning wood among other methods, but none from renewable energy," Hall-Tipping said.
"Thirty years from now, we will need seven cubic miles to sustain our environment, which may seem impossible to produce, but with innovation and ground-breaking technologies, humanity can face these challenges head on," he added.
Hall-Tipping explained nanotechnology thus: "When considering the building blocks of the universe, the smaller you go, the more energetic a material or element becomes. Nanotechnology changes the structure of devices and materials to produce new properties and provide new opportunities to innovate."
"By harnessing properties at the nanoscale, you can take something that is not traditionally energetic, such as aluminum and shrink it to harness more energy."
angel@khaleejtimes.com

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Brogan Bambrogan, co-founder and chief technology officer of Hyperloop Technologies at Dubai's World Government Summit
Nicolas Cary Co-Founder and President of BlockChain during on the second day at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Tuesday 09, February 2016.
Reuters/Angel Tesorero

Published: Sat 14 May 2016, 8:39 PM

Last updated: Sat 14 May 2016, 11:33 PM

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