Info!Hyperloop is a new way to move people and things at airline speeds for the price of a bus ticket. It's on-demand, energy-efficient and safe.
Hyperloop One, which aims to fulfill the vision of high-speed transportation promoted by Elon Musk, has signed a deal to develop a line between Dubai and UAE capital Abu Dhabi, Dubai reportedly announced this week.No financial terms have been disclosed, but the project reportedly will have several stations throughout Dubai connecting the hyperloop system to Abu Dhabi. Pods will carry passengers and cargo between the two.
The founders of Hyperloop One, which uses magnets to levitate pods inside huge airless tubes at speeds up to 750 mph (1,100 kmh) to transport people and cargo, said they have also now signed agreements on feasibility studies with the Dutch and Finnish governments.
Earlier this week, the company said it agreed to jointly evaluate a Hyperloop One transport system in Dubai.
Early next year the company will carry out its first full-scale test of the system at a facility in Nevada, which could demonstrate the system's viability. So far the company has raised $160 million to finance its growth, including $50 million last month in a financing round led by Dubai port operator DP World.
"Basically, we are looking to do a big raise next year," Josh Giegel, co-founder and head of engineering at Hyperloop One, told Reuters at the Web Summit, a tech conference held in Lisbon this week. "If we can have a customer on the hook, it will be all that much easier."
He said the size of the funding round would "be something in the hundreds of millions, but not high hundreds of millions," and that it would depend on the potential of the projects under consideration by countries.
The concept behind Hyperloop One originated in a paper by Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors Inc, in 2013. Skeptics still wonder if the technology can move from science fiction to reality.
But Hyperloop One's increasing number of agreements on feasibility studies with countries suggests growing optimism. Giegel said he has no doubts that the test will work.
"There is no doubt about it working at this point, it's just that how quickly can you go through the regulatory process, the customer process and to basically get the funding situation in place?" Giegel said.
Building networks of the huge tubes being built by Hyperloop One, either above or under ground, would cost billions.
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