Dubai announces underground 'Dubai Loop' project with Elon Musk’s Boring Company

Dubai: Dubai on Thursday announced a collaboration with Elon Musk's Boring Company to develop the 'Dubai Loop,' an underground transportation system designed to connect the city's most densely populated areas.

Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, and Vice Chair of World Governments Summit, made the announcement during a plenary session with Musk at the World Governments Summit.

 “Today we announce the joint project of Dubai Loop, which is a loop project that is going to cover Dubai's most densely populated areas for people to go from point to point the seamless manner. We hope to change people's lives,” he said. 

Wormhole travel 

Musk said the underground loop will be a wormhole-like project.

“It's going to be like a like a wormhole, you just gonna worm hole from one part of the city, boom, and you're out in another spot city, and it's great,” Musk said while addressing WGS virtually in a session titled d ‘Boring Cities, AI, and DOGE.’

“That'll be cool. I think it'd be very exciting. I think once people try it out, [they will] be like, wow, this is really cool! It's gonna seem so obvious in retrospect, but until you actually do it, you don't know. It’s going to be great,” he added. 

The Boring Company is an infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk in 2016. It was created to address urban traffic congestion by developing underground transportation systems. The company focuses on low-cost, fast-to-dig tunnels that can be used for vehicles, freight, and high-speed transit.

Will it be LA model? 

It was not immediately clear if the Dubai Loop will exactly follow the Las Vegas model of the loop project by the Boring Company. 

The Las Vegas Convention Centre Loop (LVCC Loop) is an underground transportation system that serves the Las Vegas Convention Centre. 

The Vegas Loop is designed to transport passengers in Tesla Model 3 cars at high speeds.

Will it withstand earthquakes?

Prior to the announcement about the ambitious project, the minister also raised one of the biggest questions surrounding underground tunnel—its safety especially in the event of earthquakes or extreme weather.

Musk directly addressed these concerns, highlighting the structural advantages of underground transport over traditional roads and even flying vehicles. 
“One of the safest places to be in an earthquake is an underground tunnel,” Musk explained.

“Earthquakes are largely a surface phenomenon—think of it like waves on the ocean. If you’re in a tunnel, it’s like being in a submarine during a storm. You’re protected.”

He cited historical examples, such as a massive earthquake in Mexico City decades ago, where the safest place to be was the subway system. 
Additionally, Musk pointed out that tunnels provide protection not just against earthquakes but also against extreme weather conditions like sandstorms, common in the UAE. Unlike roads or flying cars, which can be affected by storms, tunnels are immune to external weather disruptions, he pointed out.

Weather

“If you have bad weather, like, let's say there's a blizzard or a sandstorm or something. Well, now nobody can fly. So then transport shuts down. On the other hand, none of these problems exist with the underground travel. So the tunnels are immune to weather…The worst weather doesn't matter,” he said.

Musk went a step ahead with the hypothesis of a global thermonuclear warfare. “Of course, if there were global thermonuclear warfare, tunnels would be one of the safest places to be. Underground offers protection in worst-case scenarios. But on a more everyday level, tunnels are incredibly useful for alleviating traffic and congestion in cities,” said Musk.

Underground 3D transport
Musk also discussed why tunnels are a better solution for urban congestion than flying cars or elevated roads 
“Cities are already 3D—our buildings go up, but our roads are still stuck in 2D. That’s why we have traffic,” he explained.

To fix this, Musk said, we need to make transportation 3D too. “You can either go up with flying cars—or go underground with tunnels.”
However, Musk argued that flying cars pose challenges as they could be noisy, pose safety risk of a hubcap falling off and could be affected by bad weather conditions.

“On the other hand, none of these problems exist with the underground travel,” he claimed.

Expanding the loop system

Musk highlighted that the Boring Company has already proven the tunnel concept in Las Vegas, where the company is expanding the Loop system connecting major hotels, the convention centre, and the airport.

Al Olama responded enthusiastically, joking: “I don’t think they need to fly all the way there [to try it out],” as a prelude to his announcement about the Dubai Loop.

Musk’s assurances offered hopes for Dubai Loop to redefine urban transport by providing a quiet, efficient, and weather-proof alternative to surface roads. While specific timelines and routes have yet to be announced, the partnership marks a significant step forward in Dubai’s smart city ambitions.