Dubai will begin trials for driverless taxis and e-hailing services this year, making it one of the first cities outside the US to operate such vehicles, according to an official statement.
Through its partnership with General Motors-backed Cruise, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is set to deploy a limited number of Cruise autonomous vehicles in 2023, with plans to gradually scale up operations to reach 4,000 self-driving taxis by 2030.
Dubai intends to make 56 percent of its taxi fleet environmentally friendly by 2023 and also aims to convert 5 percent of the cars to autonomous vehicles by the same year.
“This initiative enhances Dubai’s pioneering role in self-driving transport. It is an important step towards realising Dubai Smart Self-Driving Transport Strategy aimed to transform 25 percent of total mobility journeys in Dubai into journeys on various self-driving transport modes by 2030,” said Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, director-general, chairman of the board of executive directors of RTA.
“Dubai will be the first global platform for launching Cruise Origin Cars. It is a vehicle dedicated to shared driverless transport,” he added.
The announcement was made following a meeting between Al Tayer and a delegation headed by Anthony Gregory, vice president of market development at Cruise, in which they discussed the supply of vehicles, operations, developments from operating autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, and the production of Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle, as well as Dubai being the global platform for launching the operation of this vehicle, according to the statement.
The Cruise delegation visited some areas in Dubai to study locations for launching the service based on technical standards, infrastructure and anticipated demand.
Abu Dhabi also recently announced the successful completion of phase one trials of its first autonomous taxi service on Yas Island, with over 16,600km of driving achieved.
