Dubai ‘not far’ from being first city to have driverless transport

Gulf News

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2oJmqfl  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos  Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Dubai is “not very far away” from becoming possibly the world’s first city to use driverless public transport, a senior Dubai official said on Wednesday.  #Dubai #transportation #driverlesscar

Transcript

00:00Our strategy is multi-modal, so we are focusing on not only one mode of self-driving transport,

00:05but we would like by 2030 to transform the majority of the modes that run under the RTA today

00:10to be self-driving transport systems so that we can achieve our target of 25% trips in self-driving

00:15mode by 2030. We have done several trials, some of them have been with shuttle buses,

00:20some of the same buses that you saw today as announced in the competition or the challenge.

00:26We have done trials with taxis as well, so the purpose of these trials really is to test the

00:30technology, to look at how the technology behaves in the unique environment of Dubai from a weather

00:35point of view, from an infrastructure point of view, and at the same time to look at how advanced

00:39the technology is and when possibly these technologies will be ready for implementation.

00:43So it teaches us a lot, it also teaches a lot to the companies who do trials here because they

00:47would like also to have a difficult environment to test their products so that they can continuously

00:53improve them. We are also working not only on trials and technology, but we are also looking

00:58at what it takes to make Dubai as a city ready for the technology to be deployed. Now technology

01:03is not ready today for deployment, obviously the trials prove that there are still obviously ways

01:08away to go. It's difficult to say how long it will take, it depends on how quickly the industry

01:12advances, but definitely today we are not ready. But as a city, we want to be as ready as quickly

01:18as possible so that once the technology is mature and reach a point of deployment, we are ready as

01:22a city for this deployment. We want to be amongst obviously the first cities in the world to

01:26accept or implement self-driving transport. So we are looking at legislation, we are working

01:31very hard with the legal authorities in Dubai and the UAE to establish legislation that allows not

01:35only trials, we do have registration by the way that allows trials in Dubai, but registration for

01:40deployment is still ongoing and most cities in the world are still you know catching up in that

01:44regard as well. We are looking also at cyber security, we are looking at how our infrastructure

01:48can be smarter and more connected so that these vehicles can be deployed faster. So all of these

01:54if you like pillars for self-driving transport are being highlighted in this conference. The

01:58conference is focusing on all of them. Last but not least is actually not forgetting the public

02:03perception because you can have the most advanced technology, you can implement them, but if people

02:07are worried, if people are scared about their own safety and security, at the end of the day it's

02:11about getting people safely from one place to another. So really we have to work with the

02:16support of the media of course to highlight the advantages of self-driving transport, the fact

02:21that it's inclusive and allows people like children and elderly to access mobility solutions, the fact

02:28that it promises less accidents because over 90 percent of accidents today are caused by human

02:33error. And hopefully as this technology matures with the maturity of AI and artificial intelligence

02:39and as we start taking the driver out of the equation, then you expect that not only will

02:43transport be cheaper because the driver is also a cost in the mobility ecosystem, but also will

02:49be safer as well. So these messages, it's very important that government authorities and media

02:54collaborate to present these messages to the public and over time we start getting the confidence of

02:59the public and actually having them look forward to this technology rather than being worried about

03:03using it. I am a positive person, very optimistic, I've been working on this technology for many

03:07years, monitoring and dealing with all these companies. I feel we are not very far away,

03:11it's definitely not decades, it's only years, but the most important thing for us is not to really

03:16estimate how long, it's to make ourselves as a city ready so that when the technology is ready

03:21for deployment, we are also ready as a city to become one of the leaders in the world and push

03:25this technology forward so that others can follow.

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