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HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said: “The Autonomous Mobility had become a fait accompli, and a continuously evolving. This technology has been tested in several countries including Dubai, Singapore, the United States and Britain. The Government of Dubai is leading the transition to driverless mobility in Dubai and is planning to take a leading position worldwide in Autonomous Mobility by 2030, whereas in other cities and countries, it is the private sector that leads the process. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has launched the Dubai Smart Autonomous Mobility Strategy where 25% of all journeys in Dubai would be transformed into driverless journeys by 2030. We anticipate that the percentage of journeys that would be made by the driverless Dubai Metro to reach 12.2% by 2030 compared with 8.8% in 2016. We anticipate that the percentage of journeys made by autonomous buses to reach 6.4% by 2030.”
Al Tayer delivered a speech to this effect entitled “Autonomous Mobility – Global Challenges and future Prospects” at the World Government Summit 2017.
During his speech, Al Tayer played a film about the Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV), which RTA is currently testing in cooperation with EHANG Company of China, the first ever-manned vehicle worldwide. “The AAV on display at the World Government Summit is not just a model but it has really flown in Dubai skies. RTA will spare no effort to launch the AAV in July 2017.”
5 Levels
During his speech, Al Tayer reviewed the current Autonomous Mobility, particularly from the governments’ prospective, as well as the expected benefits, saying: “Researches and studies related to Autonomous Mobility started some decades ago, highlighted by fitting some vehicles with limited driverless features. These researches and techniques had evolved and have now reached to advanced levels. Software companies entered the Autonomous Mobility field over the last ten years including Apple Company, which invested $ 10 billion in iCAR, in addition to many car manufacturers such as Daimler, Volvo and Tesla, which conducted several successful test runs in this regard. According to the Classification of the American Society of Automotive Engineers, the Autonomous Mobility includes five levels for driverless mobility where Level 1 is limited to the vehicle’s self-stopping when approaching a hindrance; Level 5 is about the vehicle's ability to travel anywhere under any circumstances without any human intervention.
The commercially available technologies now fall within Level 3 approximately where a driverless vehicle is available for limited periods in normal circumstances and requires the driver’s intervention under certain conditions. The current researches and studies fall between Level 4 and Level 5, where some companies are currently testing driverless vehicles on pre-defined or non-defined routes. Governments around the world have spent more than US$600 million to support researches related to driverless vehicles. This amount does not include the amounts disbursed by private companies. Some of these investments have been allocated to establish test & research centers in several parts of the world including Singapore, California, Michigan, Taiwan and Sweden. In Michigan, an integrated city has been established and dedicated to Autonomous Mobility researches called ‘M City.’ This city is fitted with full infrastructure including intersections, traffic lights and buildings, and spans an area of 130,000 square meters. This city, along with other similar ones, allow for conducting test runs in various scenarios including weather conditions and interaction with other vehicles and means of transportation. In addition, labs have been established to ensure the viability of this technology to achieve traffic safety and security standards.”
Pioneering position
“Dubai was able to carve out a nifty niche for itself among the world’s countries within a few years thanks to the vision of our wise leaders who set a clear-cut target of transforming 25% of all journeys in Dubai into driverless journeys by 2030. Dubai’s Metro is the world’s longest driverless metro which lifts more than 600,000 riders a day, in addition to Dubai Tram which is also fitted with some driverless features and Phase II will witness the operation of fully driverless trams,” added Al Tayer.
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