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If the UAE Wants a Hyperloop, Peter Diamandis Will Build It by 2020

The X Prize founder said the technology is about “reinventing transportation.”

The hyperloop could someday make the trip from Abu Dhabi to Dubai less than 15 minutes, according to a new plan announced by Peter Diamandis on Monday.

Diamandis, founder of the XPrize and several space companies, announced a plan to bring the high-speed, futuristic transportation system to the United Arab Emirates in a speech he gave in Dubai with former SpaceX rocket engineer and Hyperloop Technologies CTO Brogan BamBrogan.

"Hyperloop is about reinventing transportation," Diamandis said. "This is about the future. This is like how mobile telephone reinvented the world many times over."

The Abu Dhabi-Dubai commute currently takes around two hours, but the hyperloop, first conceptualized by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, would be capable of moving people at speeds of 760 miles per hour. Diamandis's project joins a trio of other Hyperloop projects, including one by Hyperloop Transportation Technologies that's set to begin construction in 2016.

"If the UAE wants it, it could be operational before 2020," Diamandis said.