Abu Dhabi has entered full-scale deployment of autonomous transport, with driverless taxis, buses and cargo drones already in operation, His Excellency Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Department of Municipalities and Transport and member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council has told Arabian Business.
“A lot of people are talking about deploying autonomous vehicles or robotics. It’s nice to talk about it, but you need to have things on the ground,” he said. “In Abu Dhabi we don’t announce anything that we are planning to do. Instead, we always announce things that we have already done.”
HE Al Shorafa said driverless taxis have been operating for several months on key routes including Zayed International Airport, Yas Island, Saadiyat, Reem and Maryah Islands.
“Abu Dhabi is really geared to it because the acceleration that the leadership wants is very big,” he said. “Abu Dhabi will be one of the few cities in the world that will soon have a high number of autonomous vehicles on its streets.”
HE added the emirate was not waiting for international consensus before acting.
“We set the benchmarks ourselves, ensuring that our policies remain responsive to technological advancement, best practices and the evolving landscape,” he said.
Abu Dhabi has already mapped its entire road network for autonomous navigation, and its traffic infrastructure is digitally connected to a central control platform designed to manage vehicle movement and reduce congestion, HE said.
“Our traffic lights are already digitally connected to a single platform, and we have a central control command centre only for autonomous,” he said. “We understand where there is more traffic than in other areas, so the AI system automatically deploys the ‘Green Wave’ to reduce congestion.”
HE said the government’s priority was to ensure all public transport systems are fully autonomous, with privately owned vehicles equipped to operate in self-driving mode.
“The most important thing for us to deploy is our public transport,” he said. “We’re already testing large buses and smaller electric buses within the Masdar area. In terms of public transport, we’re already testing large buses on autonomous.”
Although there are no current targets for private vehicles, the infrastructure is being built to make all cars autonomy-ready, he said.
“We haven’t put a target on private vehicles. We have targets for electric, but all cars have to be autonomous-ready. So, whenever you’re ready, you just switch it on and you’re already part of the system,” HE Al Shorafa said.
Autonomous systems are also being rolled out in logistics. Etihad Airways has signed a memorandum of understanding to use autonomous aerial vehicles for mid-range cargo deliveries from Zayed International Airport to industrial zones such as Kizad, reducing reliance on road freight.
“We started deploying food delivery on autonomous vehicles on streets, even delivery within commercial and residential buildings,” HE said. “Food will be delivered directly and autonomously with a van. Then there is another vehicle that will take it within the premises and up to your flat. It will automatically connect to the elevator and leave your food outside your door. Afterward it will call you to tell you your order is delivered. There are a lot of things that are happening.”
HE Al Shorafa said Abu Dhabi is also exploring robotics for wider use.
“We are going to introduce robotics into not only the manufacturing side, but also in a lot of our society. Safety guards, for example. The sky’s the limit. It’s how you can deploy these technologies with the right ecosystem around them, and with very rigorous safety. That’s very important.”
He added the shift to automation should not be seen as a threat to employment but as part of the natural evolution of technology.
“It’s natural to think this will be scary,” he said. “But look at history. Ahead of the Industrial Revolution, nobody thought you’re going to have cars and rolling stocks of trains. But things evolve. There’s going to be new types of skills that will need to be adapted by people, new employment structures, new jobs that will be created that we have never heard of.
“History always determines our future. If we reflect on that, we should be a bit more comfortable.”
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