‘Like a wormhole’: Musk promises ‘Dubai Loop’ tunnel network

DUBAI: Elon Musk said on Thursday that he was partnering with Dubai authorities to create a “Loop” underground road network in the congested city. Musk´s Boring Company has built a similar system in Las Vegas, with Tesla cars -- another of his products -- driving passengers down narrow, one-way tunnels for a fee.

“It´s gonna be like a wormhole -- you just wormhole from one part of the city, boom, and you´re out in another part of the city,” Musk, the world´s richest person, said by videolink at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

Currently the Vegas Loop has four stops and costs $10 for a five-minute, eight-kilometre ride. “I think (when) people try it out, they´ll be like, ´This is really cool.´ And it´s so obvious in retrospect, but until you actually do it you don´t know,” said Musk.

Dubai´s Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum said the project was still at the planning stage, but could extend to 11 stations and capacity to transport 20,000 passengers an hour. “Dubai will explore the development of the 17-kilometre project,” he said in a statement. Despite a giant road network of six-lane highways criss-crossing Dubai, traffic jams are common in the fast-growing United Arab Emirates city of about 3.6 million people.