Hyperloop One to conduct full system test this quarter

The first full systems test of Hyperloop One is expected to take place in the first quarter of the year, and the UAE is one of the company’s priority countries in which to deploy the superfast transportation technology, a senior executive at developer company Hyperloop One said in the capital on Wednesday.

The systems test will take place at the firm’s testing facility in Nevada, the United States, Colin Rhys, creative director for the company, told Gulf News.

“We view the UAE as our number one priority area of development right now because the government’s vision aligns with our vision. The other regions we are looking at right now are the GCC and the Nordics,” Rhys said.

He was speaking on the third day of the World Future Energy Summit, which wraps up in the capital on Thursday. The summit is part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, a series of events to promote clean energy and sustainable solutions.

Hyperloop is one of the clean energy technologies that was highlighted at the four-day Summit. It aims to transport people at speeds of up to 1,200 kilometres per hour using low-pressure pipes between ports or stations. The pipes will carry individual passenger pods that are levitated magnetically, and shot in a vacuum at high speeds. The design was first conceived in a 2010 white paper by Elon Reeve Musk, a South African-born billionaire inventor who helped found Tesla Motors and SpaceX

Last November, Hyperloop One signed an agreement with Dubai’s transport regulator, the Roads and Transport Authority, for a feasibility study that will look into the possibility of a link between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It was also announced that Dubai may have a 20-kilometre prototype of the system by 2020.

Rhys stressed that the company wished to explore a UAE-wide link, and even a network across the GCC.

“Hyperloop is like physical broadband, and the way that broadband works is that it becomes more effective the more the network spreads,” he said.

The company has already developed a possible physical route from the capital to Dubai, including several ports throughout Dubai, as well as the conceptual interiors and exteriors of the individual passenger pods.

Rhys said the company expects to be transporting cargo by 2020, and people by 2021.

Last month, another company looking into developing hyperloop transportation, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi’s transport regulator, the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport, for a possible link between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The agreement allows for a multiphase system study, including route analysis, feasibility test, cost estimates and development schedules

source : gulfnews