Virgin Hyperloop One Unveils High-Tech Passenger Pod in Dubai

Stepping onboard this high-tech passenger pod, visitors to Dubai Motor Show are getting a taste of the future.

Lights glow and screens flash, while the pod supposedly hurtles to top speeds of 1,220 kilometres per-hour (760 miles per-hour).

Virgin Hyperloop One is hoping to wow potential passengers.

A proposed hyperloop track between Dubai and Abu Dhabi would take just 12 minutes, according to Hyperloop One officials.

That's significantly down from the hour-plus journey it now takes by car between the two cities.

"What we are showing and what we're indicating here is that this is designed so it's spacious, it gives that passenger comfort, passenger experience," explains Harj Dhaliwal, managing director of Hyperloop One's Middle East and India operation.

"What we will have is infotainment systems that will allow you to have tailor-made infotainment experience, information at the fingertips of your hands when you're travelling."

A hyperloop is a mode of cargo and people transportation that involves levitating pods powered by electricity and magnetism that hurtle through low-friction pipes at a top speed of 1,220 kilometres per-hour (760 miles per-hour). Tesla co-founder Elon Musk first proposed the idea in 2013.

Richard Branson, who Forbes Magazine estimates has a net worth of $4 billion USD, became Virgin Hyperloop One's chairman in December 2017.

The company successfully tested a prototype pod in July 2017 at its "Devloop" in the Nevada Desert. Dhaliwal says they've now completed over 400 tests.

"We're the only company in the world that have actually built a full-size test facility, where we've done now over 400 tests," Dhaliwal says.

"So, we have proven that the technology works at full-scale. And that facility is just outside Las Vegas. And we continue to invest and develop that facility.

"So, this technology is no longer theoretical, it's actually proven and it's there. We've shown the world it can be done."

Hyperloop One is locked in a race with Hyperloop TT, another firm based in Los Angeles, to build the world's first mass transit Hyperloop.

Hyperloop TT announced in April 2018 it planned to build a test track within a 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) property near Abu Dhabi's border with Dubai. They also have deals in place in Ukraine and China.

Dhaliwal says competition is a good thing.

"Of course, there is a competition, there's always a competition to be the first in the world. You know, whether it's this technology, whether it's autonomous technology, whether it's AI technology," he says.

"We want to be the first, but we've invested hugely to really push this technology because we really believe that here in the Gulf, in India, in the US, we have the ability to connect like never before."

The Dubai International Motor Show runs till 16 November.

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