The Hyperloop is a new super-speed-train, built after an idea of Entrepreneur and Tesla-founder Elon Musk.
Formerly it was just a theoretical project, but now the world's first Hyperloop will be built: in the United Arab Emirates, connecting metropolises Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
What is the Hyperloop and how does the technology work ?
The Hyperloop is an idea by Elon Musk - he announced the project in 2013.
Now, it has been realized by LA-based comapny Hyperloop One.
The train can reach a speed of 1200 km/h (740 mph) and his original idea was that it could travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes.
That's a distance of 610km (380 miles) and even a plane takes little over one hour for that journey!
The Hyperloop itself is a very long tube, with a vacuum inside.
Passengers would sit in containers, so-called Pods, that have seats for 6 people.
These pods would then be elevated from the ground with magnets, and travel through the tube in small groups of pods that have the same destination as their goal.
Dubai is known for its spectacular, futuristic projects like the Burj al Arab or "The Palm".
With the Hyperloop, it could become the first city in the world that can offer travelers such a fast travel experience.
"Dubai makes perfect sense for Hyperloop One because this is the 21st century's global transport hub and its leaders understand that Hyperloop One is ushering in the next era of transportation."-Shervin Pishevar, Executive Chairman of Hyperloop One
The train would go from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in only 12 minutes - a journey that usually takes 2 hours by car, with a distance of 120km (90 miles).
It's also been said that the train network could later be expanded in order to connect multiple cities or possibly even other countries of the UAE.
You could buy tickets to the train on an App.
Each pod fits 6 people, and you can get on and off the train on the Hyperloop one portals (= train stations).
When entering a portal, you could immediately see all available destinations and book your ticket according to the numbered portals.
6 people seems like a small amount of people per pod, but this ensures privacy, and there will be a huge number of pods that circulate in the system.
The company has even stated that the main objective will be to keep waiting times for passengers at an absolute minimum.
The insides of the pods will be designed differently, depending if the travel journey should be a business meeting, a casual trip or several solo travelers.
The pods could even drive autonomously on normal roads, offering the travelers even more opportunities.
The train is supposed to be finished by 2020, but such a large project might finish later than that short deadline.
The Hyperloop itself has already been tested in a desert in Nevada, but it has not been used as a real transportation method in a city yet.
The technology offers many benefits:
The company Hyperloop One states that the train will be safer than an airplane, extremely low emissions and will actually have a lower build and maintenance cost than traditional high speed trains, when you take the maintenance cost for several decades into consideration.
"Technology is evolving and transforming how we live, yet we lack real innovation in mass transportation and the current system has stagnated. Hyperloop One is focused on transport that's far more efficient, fast and clean. It will change the dynamics of how we move goods and people."-Shervin Pishevar, Executive Chairman of Hyperloop One
Personal Opinion
I personally love the idea of creating more futuristic transportation systems. Traditional highways and train routes seem to be outdated, and a technology like this could revolutionize the way we travel and the way we even perceive distances.
But I also think that there's still a long way to go. I'd be interested to see how the testing will go in Nevada, and then you'd be able to estimate when such a mammoth project would be finished in Dubai.
I also think it's a great step in the right direction for the UAE to be the first country to accept a futuristic project like this one.
Other examples like the Transrapid train in Shanghai (which has a max. speed of 430 km/h) have already shown that trains have a huge potential to be optimized.
I hope the Hyperloop project in the UAE will be successful and finished in a short amount of time, and maybe then we'll have other countries showing interest in the technology as well!
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