Dive Brief:

• Denmark-based Bjarke Ingels Group has revealed its design for a Hyperloop system in Dubai, according to Curbed.
• The project, which is collaboration with U.S. company Hyperloop One, features station-like portals and passenger pods that can accommodate six people each. The pods will also be able to operate off the system and travel standard roadways to pick up passengers.
• At speeds of up to 684 miles per hour, Hyperloop officials said the system could cut the two-hour trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to 12 minutes.

Dive Insight:

Hyperloop technology may still be in the early stages, but it is garnering major hype among technology and transportation insiders. Earlier this year, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said the U.S. should embrace the Hyperloop concept and that the Department of Transportation will consider funding Hyperloop research.

In May, Hyperloop One tested its propulsion system at its facility in Nevada and has raised at least $80 million in investments. One of its main competitors, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, is working on a Hyperloop test facility in California, but a pending environmental review has held up permitting for that project. The local board of supervisors and planning commission also must approve the plans. There is no precedent for these types of structures, so if the Hyperloop concept takes off, local governments around the country will have to grapple with the requisite new building codes.

The instigator of all this Hyperloop activity, Elon Musk, also built a Hyperloop test track at his Space X facility in Hawthorne, CA, and the winner of the January Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be able to test a pod design on that track. Despite being one of the driving forces behind development of Hyperloop technology, Musk has stated that he is neutral and does not have a favored Hyperloop company.