A battle of the billionaires is unfolding in India between Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani and founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk.
Three years ago, Reliance’s subsidiary Reliance, Strategic Business Ventures invested in a US-based transportation company developing pod taxis.
Ambani’s skyTran and Musk’s Hyperloop both are in the business of making pod taxis that are also referred to as personal rapid transit (PRT), these are a type of small public transport facility featuring small automated vehicles that can operate within a network of tracks specifically built for them.
Both use the power of magnets to move around at speed. Theoretically, Hyperloop and skyTran can reach upto 240 kilometres per hour.
On the contrary, in India, Hyperloop, already, has three projects in the works. One connecting Mumbai to Pune, another increasing the connectivity to the Bangalore International Airport and the latest development to connect Chandigarh to New Delhi.
Reliance in its regulatory filing mentioned, “skyTran has developed breakthrough passive magnetic levitation and propulsion technology for implementing personal transportation systems aimed at solving the problem of traffic congestion globally,”
Ambani recently announced that he will be making batteries for electric vehicles prior to the boom resonating with Musk’s plans with Tesla. While Tesla will be making revenue from the actual cars. Overall, Musk has invested in energy generation and storage in a big way.
