From Martian colonies to computer chips for the brain, Elon Musk has been known to throw his wealth into some seriously far-fetched projects.
Now, one of the billionaire’s wilder ideas is set to become a reality.
Musk’s tunnel-drilling company, The Boring Company, has been given the green light to build the ‘Dubai Loop’.
This 10.6-mile (17 km) tunnel system promises to carry 20,000 people across the city every hour at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 kmph).
Similar to the Vegas Loop that became operational in 2021, Tesla cars are set to transport passengers to their destinations via a system of one-way tunnels situated beneath the city streets.
Musk unveiled the plans via video call alongside Dubai’s AI minister Omar Al Olama on the final day of the World Governments Summit.
Speaking at the summit, Musk said: ‘I think once people try it out, they’ll be like, “Wow, this is really cool.”’
‘It’s going to be like a wormhole. You just wormhole from one part of the city and you’re out in another part of the city.’
Elon Musk’s tunnel construction company, The Boring Company, has been approved to construct a Dubai Loop that will mimic the design of the successful Vegas Loop project.
The tunnel infrastructure will link crucial sites in Dubai, significantly cutting down travel time between these locations to mere ‘minutes’. The Boring Company estimates that the system could potentially transport up to 20,000 individuals per hour at its peak capacity.
In a statement released last week, The Boring Company announced that it had entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Dubai to create the pilot stage of a new city-wide transport network.
The company claims that this will reduce transport times between key locations in the city to ‘just minutes’.
An intended route has not been announced and there is no indication when work is scheduled to commence.
Although the first stages will cover only 10 miles with 11 stations, Musk’s company already has ambitions to expand the system further.
Eventually, The Boring Company says that its goal is to expand the Dubai Loop to travel throughout the entire Emirate of Dubai.
Ultimately, this could transport as many as 100,000 passengers.
Musk told the summit: ‘It’s going to seem so obvious in retrospect but until you actually do it you don’t know.’
The Boring Company’s ‘loop’ system is more like a highway running underground rather than a subway system like the London Underground.
On X, Elon Musk announced that a Dubai Loop would be built by The Boring Company. This loop will carry Tesla vehicles beneath the streets of the city to help ease traffic on the surface
Just like the Vegas Loop (pictured), the Dubai Loop will be an underground transportation system which electric vehicles can drive through. It is more like an underground highway than a train system like the London Underground
Electric cars enter the tunnel through a ‘station’ entrance on the surface and follow the route until they reach their desired stop.
The car then simply redirects out of the tunnel, through the station’s exit, and out into regular surface traffic.
The Boring Company claims that this is faster than a subway train because it removes the need to pause at each stop along the route and allows for higher potential top speeds.
However, it isn’t clear whether drivers will be able to use their own cars or whether they will have to ride in one provided by Tesla.
At the Vegas Loop, riders are taken through the 1.7-mile (2.7 km) tunnel in a Tesla car driven by a Boring Company employee.
Likewise, while Musk claims that the top speed of the tunnel is 100 miles per hour (160 kmph), the Vegas Loop has a top speed of just 40 miles per hour (64 kmph).
Although this is still about twice the average speed of trains on the London Underground, it is still far from the 150 mph (241 kmph) promised on The Boring Company’s website.
Likewise, while the system is intended to reduce congestion on the roads, the Vegas Loop has experienced traffic jams at moments of high capacity.
Speaking at the summit, Elon Musk said that the loop would be like a ‘wormhole’ taking passengers from one part of the city to another
The company has given no indication when construction might start on the new loop system, or when it expects to open for the first passengers. Pictured: The Vegas Loop
Workers for Elon Musk’s Las Vegas tunnel project have described unbearable conditions at the underground worksite. The project has added just two stations since completing the pilot project in 2021
It remains unclear when the new Dubai Loop will be completed, and The Boring Company has not announced any intended timeline.
Similarly, there is no indication of how soon the pilot project will be expanded further.
While the Vegas Loop has been approved to cover 104 stations across 68 miles (110 km) of tunnel, only two stations have been added since 2021.
If construction on the Dubai loop continues at a similar pace it could be several years before the project is complete.
The Boring Company has been contacted for more information.
WHAT IS ELON MUSK’S ‘BORING’ PLAN?
When Elon Musk first announced his plans to bore a tunnel to his SpaceX offices in Los Angeles, it was hard to know if he was simply venting his frustrations about being stuck in traffic.
‘Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…’, he tweeted in December of 2016.
He ended his rant on the social media site with: ‘I am actually going to do this’.
The billionaire’s tunnel-digging firm ‘The Boring Company’ has presented its plans to build a 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting. Pictured is an image shared by Musk in October of the firm’s test tunnel in Los Angeles
The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm’s boring machine back in February 2017 with the caption ‘Minecraft’ – a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources.
On Monday, January 22, 2018, the Boring Company presented plans to build the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting.
According to the plans, the privately-funded tunnel would carry cars on ‘electric skates’ at 150 miles per hour (240 kph) to help with LA’s ‘soul-destroying’ congestion.
The proposed route goes through West Los Angeles passing underneath Sepulveda Boulevard through Culver City.
The tunnel could also make Hyperloop adoption viable.
Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at over 600 miles per hour (965.6 kilometers per hour) between distant locations.
Musk’s proposed first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, then to Santa Monica, and end in Westwood. Musk claims the tunnel trip will take five minutes, compared to 45 minutes driving in normal LA traffic
It was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes – half the time it takes a plane.
It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum.
The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes.
In August of 2017, Elon Musk took to social media to share progress on his traffic-beating tunnel beneath Los Angeles, revealing it was big enough to fit a Tesla Model S
