Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) facilitated the signing of three agreements at the Dubai World Congress and Challenge for Self-Driving Transport, with participating companies calling for developing technology-driven solutions for self-driving transport.
The first agreement was signed between Careem and Kiwibot to develop food and grocery delivery robots. The second one was made between Majid Al Futtaim and Yandex to explore independent technology solutions to enhance the scope of the last-mile delivery of Carrefour orders. The third agreement was between Noon, Neolix and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to provide self-driving logistical services within RIT campus.
Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General, Chairman of the Board of the Executive Directors of RTA, stressed that the agreements boost the global profile of Dubai in developing pioneering solutions for self-driving transport that support the last-mile journeys to deliver items to customers. It also supports Dubai’s Smart Self-Driving Transport Strategy aimed to convert 25% of total mobility journeys in Dubai to self-driving transport means by 2030.
“These agreements are part of Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport outcomes, which sets a global platform for companies, academia, and R&D centres to run case scenarios and introduce self-driving transport technologies in Dubai. It also contributes to broadening the use of autonomous transport means, and encouraging entities to tackle the existing challenges,” said Al Tayer.
The agreement between Careem and Kiwibot entails the introduction of robot delivery for food and grocery items across residential areas in Dubai, the first of its kind in the region. Together with Kiwibot, Careem will launch a pilot program to study the feasibility of the market and assess the best geographical locations. College campuses and highly dense residential areas are primary locations for the pilot, with RTA helping to facilitate the deployment of the product through a regulatory framework.
The agreement was signed by Bassel Al Nahlaoui, Managing Director of Mobility at Careem, and Felipe Chávez Cortés, Chief Executive Officer of Kiwibot.
“We are looking forward to working with Kiwibot and RTA to introduce autonomous vehicles in our offerings and support Dubai’s Autonomous Transportation Strategy to provide simple, affordable, and reliable mobility,” said Al Nahlaoui.
“Our mission is to make people’s everyday lives simpler and being at the forefront of the technology industry in the region, we are in a perfect position, alongside our partners, to introduce such an innovative and convenient feature to the food and grocery delivery space.”
Chávez Cortés added: “We are delighted to launch this pilot phase with Careem and RTA, taking a step towards the introduction of delivery robots in the region. The Kiwibot team works hard to further last-mile delivery technology innovation, and to watch this partnership unfold before our eyes, bringing our dreams one step closer to reality is incredibly exciting.”
Carrefour’s last-mile delivery capabilities and to deliver orders using self-driving technology.
Responding to the high demand for online orders, customers in selected neighbourhoods across the UAE could receive their online orders via Yandex autonomous delivery robots as part of the pilot program, which is set to launch in early 2022.
The agreement was signed by Hani Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of Majid Al Futtaim Retail, and Artem Fokin, Head of Business Development at Yandex Self-Driving Group.
The partnership supports Yandex’s autonomous vehicle technology, which can efficiently plan the safest route in real-time, detect approaching vehicles and pedestrians, and travel at speeds of up to 8 km/h on sidewalks or other pedestrian areas. Customers will be able to track its movement in real-time on the MAF Carrefour App.
The agreement between Noon, Neolix and RIT entails operating Neolix-manufactured autonomous vehicles to provide self-driving logistical services and deliver Noon products to customers, at the RIT campus in Dubai.
The agreement was signed by Mansoor Al Ghurair, from Noon, Jason Wang, Neolix UAE Manager, and Dr Yousef Al-Assaf, President of RIT Dubai.
