Dubai has showcased its vision for self-driving vehicles and flying taxis at a major public transport summit in Spain.
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) presented the vision at the 64th UITP Global Public Transport Summit held in Barcelona, Spain featuring the participation of 1,900 delegates from 100 countries.
In addition to highlighting a $39.5bn investment in roads and public transport, the RTA shared details on the future of public transport in the city.
RTA Dubai transport plan
Dubai is working towards offering autonomous vehicles on land, sea and air. By 2030, a quarter of all journeys in the city will be undertaken in driverless transport.
What’s more there will be robot delivery services and aerial taxi hailing.
Mattar Al Tayer, Director General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA delivered a speech at the opening session of the summit.
He stressed the city’s commitment to boosting sustainable and innovative transport across all public and shared transport means.
Al Tayer said: “Dubai Government has invested more than €37bn ($39.5bn) in upgrading the infrastructure of roads and public transport networks over the past 18 years to ensure smooth and sustainable transport for Dubai’s residents and visitors.
“Dubai’s integrated public transport modes form the backbone of people’s mobility around Dubai.
“The network succeeded in leveraging the proportion of public and shared transport from 6 per cent in 2006 to as much as 19.4 per cent in 2022, and the plan is to push it further to 25 per cent by 2030.
“The network has also coaxed a change in the culture of residents across various segments and their attitude toward using public transport means.
“RTA’s strategic and executive plans for roads and transport are built on the principle of smooth mobility around Dubai. Moreover, RTA intends to transform all mass transit means into environment-friendly means with zero carbon emissions by 2050”.
Al Tayer pointed to the environmentally friendly Metro as an example of the city’s commitment towards sustainable and innovative mobility.
Since its inception in September 2009, it has transported more than 2bn riders while living up to the highest global safety standards coupled with admirable operational efficiency rates, and a 99.7 per cent punctuality rate.
The emirate is pioneering innovative mobility, said Al Tayer. He highlighted trials of various autonomous vehicles, aerial taxis, and marine transport modes.
“Such efforts echo Dubai’s strategy for smart self-driving transport aimed to transform 25 per cent of the total mobility journeys in Dubai into driverless journeys using diverse forms of transport by 2030” said Al Tayer.
“RTA has made significant progress towards realising this strategy. As of 2022, over 10 per cent of total trips in Dubai had transformed to driverless modes, primarily through the Dubai Metro’s driverless operations.
“Furthermore, the end of this year will witness the introduction of Cruise autonomous vehicles to provide taxi and e-hail ride services. This launch will mark Dubai as the first city outside the United States to commercially operate this company’s autonomous vehicles”.
The RTA also shared details on its Aerial Taxi project undertaken in cooperation with Skyports and Joby companies.
The project is projected to be operational by 2026, positioning Dubai as the first city in the world to have a sophisticated network for vertical take-off and landing.
The stand also featured the Yandex experience with Talabat for the transportation of goods, and the launch of delivery robots that operate using autonomous vehicle technology.
It exhibits digital cards through the nol Pay app for smartphone users in the UAE usable as a means of payment for various transit means, and the S’hail Smart app, which facilitates the planning of public transport journeys in the city.
Follow us on
